Trump’s interior secretary dismisses calls to identify donors for ‘nonpartisan’ concert series

The Trump administration’s interior secretary, Doug Burgum, complained on Sunday that some musicians “seem to have segmented their audiences” after artists bailed on participating in a concert series planned for the 250th anniversary of the US’s independence.

In the interview on CNN’s State of the Union, Burgum also dismissed calls to publicly identified who had made donations for the concert series – and maintained it was a “nonpartisan” event despite Donald Trump referring to it as a rally.

“I can’t weigh into the politics of musicians because some musicians want to play music for everybody. And some musicians seem to have segmented their audiences the same way politicians have,” Burgum told State of the Union host Dana Bash. “Freedom 250 and the celebration of 250 is a non partisan event.”

Bash pushed back on Burgum about the non-partisan claim, saying musicians maintained they were misinformed that the event in Washington DC was apolitical.

When asked about Trump calling it a Maga rally, referring to the president’s Make American great again slogan, Burgum said: “Well, it is, but that’s something I think we all can certainly understand.”

Burgum said he didn’t know if the concert series was going to be cancelled. He renewed his complaints about criticism of the concert series when asked about its funding and if donations for it would ever be publicly disclosed.

“It’s not about the transparency of the donors,” Burgum said. “This is about Americans celebrating the 250th anniversary, again, the fact we have right now so much to celebrate in our country – and we’re talking about a single event on a single night” in the nation’s capital.

Trump criticized musicians backing out of the summer concert series planned to celebrate the United States’s 250th anniversary.

At least seven of the nine artists cancelled their scheduled performances, claiming they were misled by organizers that the event would be non-partisan. They included the Commodores, C+C Music Factory, Martina McBride and Milli Vanilli.

In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump mused about personally stepping in for them.

He wrote: “I understand Artists are getting ‘the yips’ having to do with their performance on Wednesday, so 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 … , DONALD J TRUMP, to take the place of these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists,’ and give a major speech, rallying the Country forward like I have done ever since being President!”

The president added, “I only want to be surrounded by Happy People, Smart People, Successful People, and People that know how to WIN. So, by copy of this TRUTH, I am ordering my Representatives to look at the feasibility of doing an AMERICA IS BACK Rally on Wednesday, Washington, DC, same time, same location. Only Great Patriots invited – It will be a Wild and Beautiful Celebration of America!”

In a post later the same day, Trump said: “We should have a giant MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN RALLY, for 250, instead of having overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain.”

Burgum touched on other topics during his interview with CNN, including by defending the high-profit margins of contractors who were given no-bid contracts by the Trump administration to update the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool for the 250th anniversary celebration.

Furthermore, Burgum told CNN the administration may appeal a judge’s order to remove Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.