Trump opens Great American State Fair amid performer boycotts

Donald Trump opened the Great American State Fair on Wednesday with a 30-minute, rally-style speech after several performers dropped out over concerns about the event’s political ties. He told the crowd, “America is back,” as military flyovers cut across the National Mall and U.S. military bands played during the opening ceremony.

The 16-day exposition runs through July 10 in Washington, D.C., and is meant to celebrate America’s 250th birthday with a World’s Fair-style showcase of the country. Freedom 250, the public-private partnership created by Trump, is organizing the fair and describes itself as a nonpartisan nonprofit. The kickoff also included remarks from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, underscoring how closely the opening was tied to the Trump administration.

The fair’s music-heavy launch unraveled as artists backed out of the lineup, including Martina McBride, Young MC, The Commodores and Morris Day and The Time. The withdrawals followed complaints about the event’s partisan flavor and its connections to the White House. What had been planned as a concert-driven opening became a political stage instead.

Resistance did not stop with the performers. Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Illinois, North Carolina, Connecticut and Rhode Island all declined official roles in the fair, citing financial and staffing limits as well as concern about its political ties. Rhode Island still plans its own semiquincentennial commemoration in Providence on July 4, a separate marker of the anniversary that keeps the state out of Trump’s event even as it prepares its own celebration.

Yet by the first weekend, the on-the-ground experience looked different from the fight over the fair’s branding. NBC News found that more than a dozen attendees on Saturday said they did not feel any political tint at the fair. Food and culture booths representing all 56 states and territories gave the event a more civic than partisan feel to many visitors, even as it remained wrapped in debate over Trump’s broader effort to reshape Washington, including plans for a triumphal arch and other branded projects.