A view of the National Mall during sunset in Washington, DC on October 04, 2025.
Mehmet Eser | AFP | getty images
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was considering canceling a planned series of concerts on Washington’s National Mall to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary and replacing them with a speech and political-style rally after several artists pulled out of the event.
The concerts were planned as part of the larger Great American State Fair, a 16-day event running from June 25 to July 10, 2026. Organizers said the fair, organized by the Freedom 250 group, will run along the National Mall from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument, with a concert stage, state pavilion, exhibits, rides and other attractions scattered throughout the Mall.
But a series of cancellations has affected the musical lineup. On Friday, Bret Michaels, lead singer of the rock band Poison, became the fifth artist to withdraw from the concerts, saying the event was not as non-partisan a celebration as he thought it would be.
Organizers have not publicly detailed the reasons for the departure, although the exit has raised questions about the feasibility of the event as originally envisioned.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, Trump suggested the concert series may no longer be necessary if artists continue to back out. Instead he likely gave a speech on the National Mall, portraying himself as a more powerful artist than any concert.
“The truth is that, according to many people, I am the number one attraction anywhere in the world,” Trump wrote. He added that he “gets bigger audiences than he did in the early days of Elvis” and “does so without a guitar.”
The president said he was “ordering my representatives to look at the feasibility of rallying America IS back.”
Freedom 250 is a public-private partnership created by the White House in partnership with federal agencies to coordinate celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the United States.
It is unclear whether replacement musicians will be recruited, or whether Trump’s proposal to hold a rally at the site of the demonstration is being seriously considered by organizers.
