Country superstar Martina McBride’s abrupt withdrawal from a Trump-affiliated musical event has provoked a furious online MAGA meltdown.
The Great American State Fair was announced on Wednesday, set to take place on the National Mall between June 25 to July 10, as part of the extended celebrations for America’s 250th birthday.
The line-up for the run of free gigs included McBride, rappers Young MC, Flo Rida and Vanilla Ice, soul band The Commodores, dance act C+C Music Factory, Poison frontman Bret Michaels, pop duo Milli Vanilli and funk act Morris Day and The Time.
On Thursday, McBride, 59, who has sold more than 23 million albums since 1992, posted on social media that she was “presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event but that turned out to be misleading.”
McBride then said after the State Fair was announced, “things started changing and what we were told is, in fact, not what is happening.”
The event is organized by Freedom 250, the White House-affiliated organization planning a string of events in to mark the nation’s anniversary, led by Trump-appointed CEO Keith Krach.
The Commodores also pulled out on Thursday, stating, “Our music has always been our voice and we choose not to publicly affiliate with any single political party. We support the betterment of all Americans.”
Rapper Young MC and Morris Day and The Time withdrew on Wednesday, hours after the event was announced.
As one of the event’s biggest stars, McBride has infuriated Trump loyalists with her decision to leave the show. They attacked the singer on social media, even though her message did not mention the president by name.
Trump ally Richard Grenell shared McBride’s message on his X account with the caption, “You’ve always been a woke Lefty.”
Grenell is no stranger to musical acts wishing to escape the political stench around Trump. He was interim president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, until Trump closed the failing venue for renovations in March.
During his time presiding over the venue, Grenell had to deal with a string of artists who axed their gigs at the once-iconic center after Trump had his name added to the front of the building.
Finding a post claiming the string of MAGA-related cancellations from the State Fair was “sad,” a triggered Grenell shared it and added, “The Intolerance is coming from your side. Why can’t you people be around people that disagree with you politically?”
Other Republicans were quick to search for footage of McBride performing for Democrats, including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Referencing how McBride started her statement, conservative broadcaster and former Fox News host Todd Starnes posted on X, “Since you are clearing the air, how about explaining why you performed at the White House during the Obama regime? Or during Bill Clinton’s scandalous presidency?”
One conservative posted on X that McBride was “another hypocritical fraud” for saying yes to Obama and no to Trump, while one called her “pathetic.”
A former Trump fundraiser said on X while McBride “thinks it’s too controversial” to perform at the state fair, “I’m sure she will be singing at a James Talarico LGBTQI rally in the near future.”
One social media user even compared McBride to the Dixie Chicks, who had conservative members of the country community turn on them after singer Natalie Maines said she was ashamed to be from the same state as former President George W. Bush, days before the Iraq war started.
“Here I was excited and planning on taking a day off so my whole family could all go to the Mall and see Martina McBride and have some patriotic fun, and now I hope she just gets Dixie Chick’d,” a Republican wrote on X.
Podcast host Caleb Parke was one of many who referenced McBride’s 1994 hit “Independence Day,” despite the song’s actual meaning.
“Can’t sing ‘Independence Day’ on the National Mall to celebrate America’s 250th? Lol,” Parke wrote.
“Independence Day” was also used by conservative host Sean Hannity as the opening music for his radio show from shortly after the 9/11 attacks until 2014.
However, the song, written by Gretchen Peters, actually tells the story of an 8-year-old girl trapped in a domestic violence situation, before her mother burns down their house on July 4 to escape an abusive husband, making it her personal independence day. It has nothing to do with the nation’s anniversary.
“When your song is assigned an entire set of cultural values based on a false premise (it was never a song about America, it was always a song about a woman who was trying to save her own life and that of her child) it starts to feel tainted,” Peters wrote on her blog.
Another conservative claimed McBride had “lost us as fans,” and said her career “will pretty much end” because of the amount of “MAGA country music fans.”
The Daily Beast has contacted reps for McBride for comment.
