Confusion seems to be the prevailing sentiment among the raft of artists who have vehemently denied they’ll be performing at Donald Trump’s so-called Great American State Fair in June, the MAGA-fueled event he and his allies are planning in Washington, D.C., pegged to America’s 250th anniversary. 

Artists like singer Martina McBride, rocker Bret Michaels and the crooning Commodores all said they had initially understood that they would be performing at a bipartisan event and not what is effectively a MAGA-branded publicity stunt.

Such claims may be hard to believe in some cases. But it is true that Trump and his allies are attempting to hijack the nation’s anniversary, sowing confusion about who is behind various events in the process. 

Congress authorized funding a decade ago for an official anniversary celebration, “America250,” but as I have referenced in previous blogs, Trump supporters have stood up a separate, Trump-allied organization called Freedom 250 to host its own events. Among these are events like the Christian nationalist “revival” hosted on the national mall and the UFC fight on the White House lawn on the president’s birthday.

Ja’han Jones

Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.