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Donald Trump's America. Freedom, Free America. Patriot Big Hullabaloo has had its musical guests announced. We're going to talk about all that, plus the UFC fight. I'm JVL here with my Bulwark colleague Sonny Bunch. Sonny, yesterday Freedom 250 said that they have the, the Great American State Fair, which I guess is the other thing we're calling this. It's going to have Martina McBride, Flo Rida, not Florida, it's Flo Rida Young MC, CNC, Music Factory, who are going to make you sweat. Vanilla Ice, Millie Vanilli, the Commodores, Morris Day and the Time Brett Michaels. Not the wrestler. That's Shawn Michaels.
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That's Shawn Michaels. Or Bret Hart.
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Or Bret Hart. Anyway, a whole thing happened about this and then suddenly a bunch of people said, wait, no, we're not doing this. So Young MC dropped out. Morris Day in the time dropped out. I think there may be more. And that's before we even get to the giant cage fight which is going to happen on the White House lawn which they are building right now. We'll talk about that. Second looks great. Sonny. What's, what is happening? Well, are we living in idiocracy?
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As you know? No, we're living in the Boys. This is all very explicitly like things that would happen in the Amazon prime video TV series the Boys, which just wrapped up. But the we're, we're celebrating America's 250th anniversary and in normal times this would be, you know, the fun and be interesting and instead it's turned into a whole weird Trump driven thing. The musical guests that were announced for this are really just the icing on the cake. As you mentioned, Martina McBride, Flo Rida Young MC, CNC Music Factory, Vanilla Ice, Milli Vanilli, the Commodores, Morris Day and the Time Bret Michaels. These were the acts that were announced they were going to perform over several days at the Great American State Fair. And once you think about that name for about 10 seconds, it becomes very obvious what happened. These are all acts that frequently perform at state fairs. Look, we have a very nice state fair here in Texas. I live just miles from the Texas State Fairgrounds. And they're great. And every year they have all sorts of interesting musical acts. Fried Oreos, they're usually better than this. Well, although last year we had the Village People here, which I'm surprised the Village People is not on this lineup, frankly. It was, I was scanning, I was looking.
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But it is one thing to play their music. Having the actual gays on stage, I think would have made a bunch of people in the Trump coalition unhappy.
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I just don't think that's true. Trump was on stage with them not long ago. He was. You know, he was. He was doing the dance. It was at the convention, wasn't it? Didn't they have the Village People at
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the Mansion Square Garden?
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I don't remember. Or maybe. Maybe it was the inaugural. Inaugural. I don't. It happened recently. And Trump's very. He's doing his Trump dance. But so what happened was all of these acts, I'm sure their management was just like, yeah, sure, you're going to give us money to play at a state fair. That's what we do. That's all we do now. That's our. That's our job. And our job is to sign those contracts and get you out there. And then it gets announced by the Daily Wire. And of course, Daily Wire has a very strong pipeline to the White House for all White House celebrity news. So they. They put that out there and everybody kind of makes fun of this. And Morris Day of Morris Day in the Time is like, no, we're not doing this. We're what? I'm not. I'm not doing this. That's not a thing that's happening. First comment on Morris Day and the Times Facebook page, by the way, was thank fuck I nearly died when from a fan who heard. Heard about it and then young MC dropped out. Of course he wrote several big Tone Loafs. He's still young. I think he's just MC now. He actually had the. The courts required him to drop the young because he's got to be 65. Well but this whole lineup though is. Is kind of hilarious. Like the folks who haven't dropped out C Music Factory who wants to make everybody dance now. Like neither C nor C is part of Music factory anymore. What one Cole. David Cole's David Coles died in 95 or 96 or something like that. And then Robert Sevilla was essentially kicked out of. He had the band name stolen from him through a series of legal maneuverings and is no longer involved and is very annoyed that they're out and touring and doing everything without him. Maybe that has changed that. That. That the last I knew that that that was true. Are I vanill 1 of 1/2 of Milli Vanilli is dead. They. They took their own Life after the VH1 behind the Music special and then the. The other one is still out there touring. But like Milli Vanilli is the. I'm sorry what are you having Milli Vanilli there to perform? They didn't. They didn't perform their own songs in the first place. I don't what is happening here. Vanilla Ice is the one only person here who makes the. The actual most sense. I guess maybe Martina McBride. I assume there's a lot of overlap between Trump fans and McBride fans, but vanilla Ice has performed at Mar a Lago. I believe he has done, you know,
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a genuine Trump stand.
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Right. He's a. He's a big Trump, you know? Ice. Ice, baby. And the ninja rap from Teenage mutant Ninja Turtles 2. I would. I would happily have gone to see that if I was 8 years old in 1990.
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And this flying dirt bike, like, stunt jumps, too.
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Yeah.
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Which is very America. I mean, I'm just spitballing here, but we've seen the gigantic arches that are gonna be going over the. The octagon, the big cage fighting pit. And I'm just thinking that it is a missed opportunity not to have Vanilla Ice jumping on his. His dirt bike. Jumping the dirt bike over it while singing his song.
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I mean, look, you say this in jest, but I really. If we are doing this thing, how do we not.
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Is this America or not? If this was a Ram commercial. If this was a Ram commercial, that's what would happen.
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Do we not have an Evel Knievel like figure who can do a jump over the UFC fight? We do.
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His name is Vanilla Ice.
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The image of this thing is a big.
Date: May 28, 2026
Host(s): JVL with Sonny Bunch
Main Theme:
A critical, satirical breakdown of the announced musical acts and spectacle planned for Donald Trump’s “America 250” celebration—dubbed the Freedom 250/Great American State Fair. The hosts scrutinize the embarrassingly dated and controversial entertainment choices, the chaos already unfolding as performers drop out, and the broader political and cultural implications of the event’s circus-like vibe amid Trump’s influence.
The hosts discuss the fiasco surrounding the freshly announced line-up for Trump’s “America 250” celebration—a supposed “Great American State Fair” marking America’s 250th anniversary. Performances by acts such as Martina McBride, Flo Rida, Vanilla Ice, and others are ridiculed for their outdatedness and cheese factor. Mass dropouts by artists, confusion over who is even in certain bands, and the planned UFC cage fight on the White House lawn all contribute to a broader argument about the degradation of American political spectacle under Trump.
Timestamp: 00:00 – 04:56
Timestamp: 01:11 – 04:56
Timestamp: 01:11 – 02:22
Timestamp: 05:10 – 05:58
Sonny Bunch [01:13]:
“No, we’re living in The Boys. This is all very explicitly like things that would happen in the Amazon prime video TV series The Boys, which just wrapped up.”
JVL [02:18]:
“It is one thing to play their music. Having the actual gays on stage, I think would have made a bunch of people in the Trump coalition unhappy.”
Sonny [03:24]:
“Their job is to sign those contracts and get you out there. And then it gets announced by the Daily Wire... and everybody kind of makes fun of this. And Morris Day... is like, ‘No, we’re not doing this...’”
JVL [05:44]:
“Is this America or not? If this was a Ram commercial, that’s what would happen.”
Comedic highlight—Vanilla Ice as Evel Knievel
JVL [05:57]: “His name is Vanilla Ice.”
Sonny [05:58]: “The image of this thing is a big—”
This episode is a biting, humorous, and somewhat mournful analysis of a cultural moment that the hosts see as encapsulating both the entertainment and political decline typified by Trump-era spectacles. With wit and deep political-cultural knowledge, JVL and Sonny lampoon the musical line-up fiasco, the meta-reality TV overtones, and the larger implications for America’s milestone anniversary.