To be fair, it was never going to be great.

The “Great American State Fair,” part of the 250th birthday party for the United States that will take over the National Mall for two weeks in Washington, D.C. this summer, began to unravel in spectacular fashion last week when the headlining musical acts – such as they were – began to bow out, one after another, barely hours after being announced.

On Saturday, a clearly enraged President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to mock the artists who canceled, musing that he should replace them with himself: the “number one attraction anywhere in the world.” Not long after a spokesperson for Freedom 250, the White House-backed group behind the fair, said Trump will “personally kick off this historic celebration” in an opening ceremony. Not exactly an inspiring start to the festivities, certainly, but it did offer a fairly revealing look at what has happened to the Trump brand over the past 16 months.

The chaos all began on Wednesday. In a since-deleted post, the Freedom 250 X account, promising America-first programming, “MAHA Mondays” and free admission, announced a musical lineup that originally included Martina McBride, Young MC, C+C Music Factory, Vanilla Ice, Milli Vanilli, the Commodores, Morris Day and The Time, Flo Rida, Bret Michaels “and many more.” The organizers seemed intent on entertaining visitors primarily by transporting them back in time to the 1980s and ‘90s.

To be fair, Vanilla Ice is already a Mar-A-Lago favorite, and both the Commodores and the duo Milli Vanilli are essentially frauds that include only one original member each, so those choices felt about right. But while Michaels may be a punch line, he is also the frontman for notorious 1980s hair metal band Poison. And McBride, while perhaps past her prime, remains a legitimate modern country music icon. 

By Thursday, however, McBride was out, with Michaels pulling the plug on his appearance, too. (Morris Day, the Commodores and Young MC had already withdrawn.)

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Young MC claimed in an interview that he had “no clue” the fair was a politically driven event, calling the booking a “bait and switch.” In a lengthy statement posted to his website, Michaels similarly balked, and rightly so, at the idea that anyone could think his shows might be a place for politics.

“They’re about giving people a place to come together, have a great time and forget about life’s stresses for a few hours,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, what was presented to us as a celebration of our country has evolved into something much more divisive than what I agreed to be a part of,” adding that safety concerns and unspecified personal threats had led him to the “difficult decision to step away from this performance.”

But McBride’s decision may be the most striking, not just for what she said, but because of the audience she represents.

Reflecting the sentiment of other acts who bailed, the Grammy-nominated singer said that she was misled to believe the fair was a nonpartisan event, like the many other “wholesome” state fairs she performs at.

Jeff Slate

Jeff Slate is a New York City-based songwriter and journalist. His writing can be found at The New Yorker, Esquire, The Wall Street Journal and Rolling Stone, among others. He tweets at @jeffslate.