Trump Foe Hosts Star-Studded Event Opposite His UFC Birthday Party
Jane Fonda and a cohort of A-listers are gathering to perform in the name of democracy.
Getty/Reuters/The Daily Beast
Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda plans to humiliate the president on his 80th birthday by hosting a star-studded rival event on the very same day.
Trump nemesis Fonda, 88, will spearhead the event, hosted by her advocacy group, the Committee for the First Amendment, in collaboration with Indivisible and No Kings. While Trump will host a UFC match on the White House Lawn, Fonda and her group are holding a concert in New York City, showcasing artists and activists performing in the name of free speech.
President Donald Trump shows a rendering of the upcoming “UFC Freedom 250” event.
Kent Nishimura/AFP via Getty Images
The concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall, a historic New York landmark founded by suffragists in 1921. A livestream will be available, and all proceeds will go back to the committee.
“In a moment when our fundamental freedoms are under threat, music has always led the way,” reads the event description. “From the civil rights movement to today, artists have been at the forefront of the fight for justice and free expression.”
The Rise Up, Sing Out! concert will be an "uplifting evening of song, solidarity, and action," say the organizers.
Committee for the First Amendment
Public figures and A-listers like Rufus Wainwright, Bette Midler, Julia Roberts, Patti Smith, Sasha Allen, Joy Reid, and Fonda herself will make appearances.
Fonda told host Jon Stewart that the event will be “great,” explaining, “Not only is it going on in the theater, but we have thousands—I think over 5,000 registered viewing parties around the country in red states and purple states and blue states.”
Jane Fonda, an activist for five decades, will lead the rival event.
Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
“Music has always been part of movements,” she continued, “Of resistance movements, the civil rights movement.”
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The fact that the event, dubbed the “Rise Up, Sing Out” concert, is on June 14 is surely no coincidence. The counter-celebration will take place at the same time as the UFC Freedom 250 match, where thousands of guests will gather in the arena built on the White House lawn.
Fonda, a two-time Academy Award-winner, has been a vocal advocate for democracy and social issues for five decades. The actress has fiercely condemned the president during this second presidency.
“This is our documentary moment,” Fonda told Reuters in an interview. “History is going to write about this, and I don’t want to be on the side of people who said, ‘Oh my God, things are so bad, what am I going to do?’ No. I want to be out in the front.”
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