President Donald Trump’s Freedom 250 has canceled a concert performance by “Ice Ice Baby” rapper Vanilla Ice two hours before he was set to take the stage.
Freedom 250, the president’s public-private organization tasked with throwing celebrations for the 250th anniversary of American independence, announced after 5 p.m. ET Friday that “due to inclement weather” the “Great American State Fair,” where Vanilla Ice was set to perform, will be closed for the rest of the day.
“The safety of our guests, staff, and partners remains our top priority. We are actively monitoring conditions and will provide updates as they become available,” Freedom 250 wrote on X. The organization added that the fair will reopen Saturday at 10 a.m.
Vanilla Ice, whose real name is Rob Van Winkle, called the event a “once in a lifetime opportunity” in an Instagram post hours earlier.
“We’re about to have a great party tonight,” the rapper said in a video on the National Mall, where he was set to perform on a massive stage. “This is gonna be epic.”
In the caption, he wrote: “Once in a lifetime, happy birthday America. Put your dance shoes on. We’re all gonna come together and be teenagers for the night.”
It’s unclear whether the concert will be rescheduled. The Independent has requested comment from Freedom 250 organizers.
Virtually every artist who was scheduled to perform for at the concert series — including Martini McBride, The Commodores and Bret Michaels — dropped out of Freedom 250’s lineup shortly after it was announced.
Vanilla Ice was the last artist standing for Friday’s still-scheduled “I Love the ‘90s” concert, which originally featured Milli Vanilli, Young MC and C+C Music Factory.
Young MC dropped out shortly after the lineup was announced, saying the artists “were never told about any political involvement with the event” when they were booked. The musicians behind the lip-syncing duo Milli Vanilli said they never agreed to perform, and Freedom Williams, a rapper who owns the rights to use the C+C Music Factory name, said in a video defending his appearance that he “doesn’t f*** with Trump” before he also apparently backed out.
Vanilla Ice told TMZ last month that he’s “not gonna get dragged” into politics.
“I’m here to party with America, man,” he said. “Music is made to bring people together, and that’s what we are here to do. And we’re just gonna represent the ‘90s.”
Once performers started pulling out, Trump stepped in, calling himself the “Number One Attraction anywhere in the World.”
“I am thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar, the man who loves our Country more than anyone else, and the man who some say is the Greatest President in History,” Trump said about himself in a Truth Social post last month.
Trump gave a political, rally-style speech to kick off the “Great American State Fair” Wednesday night.
During the speech, the president raved about his renovation projects around Washington, D.C., including his massive and costly ballroom, which is at the center of a legal battle after he demolished the East Wing to make way for the project. Trump also re-painted the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool that turned green from algae days after being completed while freshly applied blue sealant appears to be cracking off.
“For many years, our country was ruled by politicians who let America and its capital fall into decline and total disrepair. The city named in honor of General George Washington was turned into a national disgrace, but not anymore,” Trump told a crowd of supporters Wednesday.
The kick-off event also featured music from Lee Greenwood, who sang his famed song “God Bless the USA,” and FBI Director Kash Patel’s girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, sang the national anthem.
Wilkins’ performance was blasted online, with one X user posting, “You can hear a better rendition at any high school ball game.”
The cancelations aren’t only hiccups at Freedom 250 since the fair opened this week.
On Thursday, a power outage struck the fair’s food hall, causing ice cream to melt in the summer heat, according to FOX 5 DC anchor Homa Bash.
