Artists Shocked to Learn They’re in Trump’s Great American State Fair

Three major performing artists have bailed on President Trump’s America 250 celebrations on the National Mall since the administration included them in the lineup.

Freedom 250 on Wednesday announced a list of performers for the “Great American State Fair,” which will take place from June 25 to July 10 in Washington, D.C.

Just hours later, Morris Day and the Time dropped out.

“Contrary to rumor, Morris Day & the Time will not be performing at the ‘“GREAT AMERICAN STATE FAIR,’” they posted in a graphic on Facebook captioned “It’s a no for me.”

Rapper Young MC, best known for his song “Bust a Move,” followed suit, announcing that he’d be refusing to perform at the “Trump-backed” event.

“I HAVE INFORMED MY AGENTS THAT I WILL NOT BE PERFORMING AT THE FREEDOM 250 EVENT,” he wrote on Facebook. “The artists were never told about any political involvement with the event. And despite the claims by the organizers that the event is non-partisan, SPIN magazine describes it as Trump-backed”. I hope to perform in D.C. in the near future at an event that is not so politically charged.”

Millia Vanillia also dropped out Thursday afternoon, stating that they were “shocked” to see themselves listed. “My sister and I were shocked to see our name, ‘Milli Vanilli’, as one of the performers,” Jodie Rocco wrote to the AP.

Vanilla Ice doubled down, as a representative told AP he was “proud” to be there.

The other scheduled acts—the Commodores, Flo Rida, and Martina McBride—have yet to make any announcements. This lineup of artists was already questionable given most of them haven’t been relevant in years. But now performers who were announced are dropping out, and at least one of them directly blamed Trump for it. More withdrawals may soon come.

This story has been updated.

A top White House adviser intervened to send a massive defense loan to a company linked to Donald Trump Jr., ProPublica reported Thursday.

In November, the Pentagon announced a $620 million loan to Vulcan Elements, a start-up manufacturer of rare earth elements. Just three months earlier, Don Jr.’s venture capital firm 1789 Capital had purchased a large stake in the company. When the Defense Department deal first came together, those involved were quick to deny allegations of political favoritism.

But in fact, the deal was reportedly the work of the White House.

The massive loan was personally directed by Peter Navarro, a White House adviser who is also a friend of the president’s son, according to interviews and DOD records obtained by ProPublica. Of the many companies being considered to receive funding, Vulcan was the only one that garnered the attention of one of the president’s top aides, one Pentagon official told ProPublica.

Defense officials were instructed to move at a rapid pace to see that the loan was processed, and it went through within a matter of weeks, according to another Pentagon official who spoke to ProPublica. “The call came from the White House: We have to get this done,” the person said.

Navarro and Don Jr. are chummy. The president’s son visited Navarro in prison, and he was one of the few people listed in the dedication of Navarro’s latest book, I Went to Prison So You Won’t Have To. A week before the Vulcan deal was officially announced, Don Jr. hosted Navarro on his streaming show and urged viewers to buy the book.

A spokesperson for Don Jr. told ProPublica that the president’s son had not discussed his work with federal employees and “has no knowledge about how this deal came together.” A spokesperson for 1789 Capital said it played no role in securing the deal. The White House claimed that the administration, including Navarro, was “working together and with private industry to secure America’s critical mineral supply chain at Trump Speed.”

The massive loan is part of a push by the Office of Strategic Capital to secure a tighter grip on rare earth metals, the same kind used to build the Tomahawk missiles that will need to be replaced after Donald Trump’s onslaught against Iran.

This isn’t the first time the president’s son has directly financially benefited from his father’s office, but it’s the first time the White House has directly intervened to make it happen.

Eric and Don Jr. won a government contract of an unknown value after they merged their publicly traded golf course holding company with Powerus, a Florida-based drone company, with the goal of filling the gaps left by the Trump administration’s ban on Chinese drones. The brothers also co-founded World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance platform that has attracted the financial interest of foreign investors who then benefited from Trump’s policy changes.

Donald Trump’s retribution campaign is turning the Justice Department against E. Jean Carroll.

The DOJ has opened a criminal investigation into the writer, probing whether Carroll committed perjury in her previous cases against Trump, reported CNN Wednesday.

Carroll has a long and unfortunate history with the president. Trump was found liable by a jury in May 2023 for having sexually assaulted Carroll in the mid-1990s. He subsequently lost his defamation case against her the following January, when a judge ruled that Trump had continued to slander the advice columnist by denying the rape on the basis that she wasn’t his “type,” and by accusing her of making up the sexual assault allegations against him for the benefit of her book.

The American public also did not agree with Trump’s interpretation of events. Ultimately, two juries awarded Carroll $88.3 million in damages, though she hasn’t yet seen a dime. Earlier this month, a federal appeals court allowed Trump to continue staving off his payments until the Supreme Court decided whether it will pick up the case.

Yet despite the court rulings, Trump is apparently still keen to use the power of his office to punish her: The DOJ investigation will examine whether Carroll committed perjury during depositions for her civil suits, reported CNN.

The theory hinges on a 2022 deposition statement provided by the magazine columnist, in which Carroll claimed she received no outside funding for her lawsuit. That would later prove untrue, as it was revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman—the co-founder of LinkedIn—had paid some of Carroll’s legal fees.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has been recused from the investigation into Carroll, since he was previously involved in the cases while serving as Trump’s personal attorney. Blanche, nonetheless, has played a major role in advancing Trump’s retribution campaign, placing immense pressure on the DOJ to ramp up its process against the president’s personal foes since he took the reins of the department in April.

A federal judge refused Thursday to block President Donald Trump’s executive order to illegally limit mail-in voting, clearing the way to disenfranchise millions of voters for the upcoming midterm elections.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee based in Washington, rejected the challenge from Democrats and civil rights groups. He sided with the Trump administration’s argument that it was too soon to block the order because it hadn’t actually been implemented yet.

“The Court recognizes that the Postal Service may ultimately issue a final rule that directly affects Plaintiffs or their members, or that the Government may develop State Citizenship Lists that omit specific individuals due to particularized flaws,” Nichols wrote in his ruling. “Plaintiffs may, of course, renew their motions if and when those future actions occur. Until then, however, Plaintiffs cannot show that preliminary injunctive relief is warranted.”

Trump’s executive order, signed in late March, directed that states could notify the U.S. Postal Service whether they plan to allow mail-in or absentee ballots up to 90 days before a federal election, and “should” notify the agency whether they intend to supply a list of eligible voters within 60 days of the election. The order also directed USPS to produce a set of mail-in and absentee participation lists for each state, and to refuse to deliver ballots for anyone who is not on the lists.

There is no law that requires states to provide this information to the USPS, or authorizes USPS to require states to provide that data. Trump’s order has been described by Democratic leaders as a “desperate, illegal power grab” and “laughably unconstitutional.”

A judge could still oppose Trump’s executive order as part of a separate legal challenge in Boston. But in the meantime, the way is clear for USPS to make rules that could prevent millions from voting during the upcoming midterm elections.

Democratic lawmakers have urged the Postal Service’s Board of Governors to reject Trump’s directive, as the president has no authority over the USPS, which is an independent agency only accountable to its own board of governors. Lawmakers warned that the USPS is also specifically barred from discriminating against users of the mail, and Trump’s executive order would have the agency illegally perform election administration duties.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was focused on one predominant message during Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting: resilience, resilience, resilience.

At least, that’s what his notes let on. Evan Vucci, a senior photojournalist for Reuters, snagged a shot of Bessent’s writing pad, capturing several words the treasury secretary had scrawled in front of him.

“Resilience,” Bessent wrote, with an underscore beneath it.

Bessent also jotted down “Operation Economic Fury,” referring to the economic pressure and sanctions campaign initiated by the Trump administration against the government of Iran.

In parentheses, accompanied by a check mark, Bessent wrote: “Just in time, just in case,” and then, underneath that, another mention of “resilience” and “prosperity.”

The war itself—which has so far lasted roughly 13 weeks—is costing the U.S. about $1 billion per day, according to early estimates by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. But Donald Trump’s warmongering has made life more expensive for people everywhere, due to the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on several major oil and gas facilities.

The average cost of gas nationwide is $4.45 per gallon, with large swaths of the U.S. pushing $5 a gallon, according to the AAA’s price tracker. That’s about 50 percent higher than prices were before the war started.

Costs have also gone up for the rest of the world, a reality that has only aggravated U.S. alliances.

During the meeting, Bessent claimed that high oil costs are “transitory” and pledged that “oil will be lower than pre-conflict levels when this ends.” But the prediction came with a degree of irony, as his language echoed that of the prior administration and former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

But a peace deal does not seem to be anywhere in sight. Iranian officials traveled to Qatar earlier this week to work out a potential end to the war, but those efforts stalled after American forces violated the ceasefire arrangement. U.S. strikes destroyed Iranian boats and missile launch sites in and around Bandar Abbas, an Iranian port city that is home to the country’s key naval and air bases.

Speaking to his Cabinet Wednesday, Trump accused Tehran of trying to “out-wait” him on the makings of a deal, pressuring him and threatening the future legislative success of his party as the midterm elections approach.

“I don’t care about the midterms, look what happened last night,” Trump said, seemingly referring to Ken Paxton, who won the Texas Republican Senate primary over incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn.