President Donald Trump spent the weekend melting down on TruthSocial as artist after artist dropped out of the Freedom 250 festival, a White House concert series meant to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary later this month. By the end of it, Trump declared he wanted to cancel the concert entirely and replace it with a rally featuring “the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime.” He was, naturally, referring to himself.
The tantrum is instructive. Ten years into the MAGA movement, Trump remains the only genuine star it has produced. There is no one else willing to affiliate with the cause who can pull in crowds the way he can. That fact appears to be both flattering and deeply humiliating to him.
The rally that replaced the stars
Trump clearly loves his own fame. He enjoys being the most powerful person in the room, able to extract shows of loyalty and submission from political allies and enemies alike. He has made the spectacle of these fawning displays a mainstay of his presidency, regularly broadcasting live Cabinet meetings in which each member of his staff jockeys to praise him more lavishly than the one before.
It is doubtless gratifying to Trump’s ego to know that even if he cannot get a proxy to deliver crowds on his behalf, he can still get his faithful to show up for him. MAGA still relies on him to get the crowds going, even as the movement begins to look to a post-Trump future.
But Trump is also a classic climber, clearly aware that his own star rises when he can rub shoulders with A-listers. He has cultivated famous friendships since well before his transition to politics. In 2005, he invited Billy Joel to his wedding to Melania Trump. Joel later said, “I don’t really know him that well. I think I met him once or twice.”
Trump claims to have been friends with legends like Muhammed Ali. He complains about former celebrity associates who no longer speak to him. On Whoopi Goldberg, he’s recalled her saying, “You’re so great. There’s nobody like you in the world!” On Oprah: “Oprah used to really like me. She was here many times. She loved my key lime pie.”
The stars who won’t come to the party
Trump has appeared disappointed by his transition from Manhattan’s gilded, glamorous social scene to Washington, where few of his associates could be truthfully described as glamorous. In some ways, the Freedom 250 fiasco is a replay of his 2017 inauguration, when star after star declined invitations to appear at his events, including those who had performed for George W. Bush.
Since then, MAGA has attracted a few reactionary and controversy-prone celebrities to its ranks. Most notably, that includes Nicki Minaj, who told Erika Kirk in December that she had “the utmost respect and admiration for our president.” She remains the closest possibility the movement has for a legitimate mainstream celebrity. Yet her name never appeared as a possibility for this summer’s festivities. She has yet to throw the full weight of her star power behind Trump, and given the lack of overlap between her audience and his, it’s not clear how much of that power she would retain if she did.
By the end of the spree of Freedom 250 cancellations, the concert lineup appeared to be down to Vanilla Ice and a couple of others, though it isn’t entirely clear who is still planning to perform. On TruthSocial, Trump lashed out. He called the lineup a group of “highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists'” who he wouldn’t want to work with anyway, declaring that he only wanted to surround himself with “Happy People, Smart People, Successful People, and People that know how to WIN.”
The one-man movement
Trump is telling the truth. He clearly wants to surround himself with real stars, whom he considers life’s winners. The problem is, they don’t seem to want to be around him.
Of the entertainers willing to play to the MAGA crowd, Trump remains the only one who could fill Madison Square Garden. It’s the level of fame he’s always sought, and it’s made him deeply necessary to his allies, which can feel like a position of strength. But he’s also demonstrated that he hasn’t built a movement that can bring in a crowd without him.
That’s a weak position for any president to be in. Trump’s ability to command a room is undeniable. His ability to transfer that power to anyone or anything else is nonexistent. MAGA without Trump has no marquee. MAGA with Trump has an expiration date.
The question is whether Trump has built a movement that can survive him, or just a fan club that scatters the moment he leaves the stage.
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