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Jon Stewart mocked the chaos surrounding Donald Trump’s Freedom 250 concert, the Great American State Fair, on Monday’s episode of The Daily Show.
Six acts have backed out of the Great American State Fair, a celebration of America’s 250th anniversary organized by a Trump-founded organization, saying they were misled about it being a politically aligned event or generally distancing themselves from the concert. As of Tuesday, Martina McBride, Young MC, The Commodores, Morris Day & The Time, Bret Michaels, and Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli have all exited the event.
“Damn, they didn’t want to be a part of Donald Trump’s personal and political concert,” Stewart joked on the show. The artists’ cancellations and the Great American State Fair are topics that Stewart has been eagerly anticipating for his commentary, with the comedian telling audiences he has “so been looking forward” to addressing the debacle.
“Is anyone still performing?” Stewart asked before cutting to a video of Vanilla Ice. In the video, the rapper discussed his enthusiasm to be part of Trump’s American anniversary celebration, prompting The Daily Show host to interject, “There you go! See? Everybody dropped out, but not Vanilla Ice,” before he quipped that Vanilla Ice “saw a problem and, yo, he solved it,” a reference to the lyrics of the rapper’s 1990 hit “Ice Ice Baby.”
Stewart also took aim at Freedom Williams, the C+C Music Factory rapper scheduled to perform, who released a video of himself giving an enraged rant about the backlash he received for being on the event while sitting on a toilet. “And by the way, the other artist who said that they are not bailing is C+C Music Factory, who, as you know, were devastated by globalization and the off-shoring of most of America’s music factories,” Stewart jested.
Stewart wasn’t going to let Williams’ diatribe atop a commode go without being mocked, with the comedian saying after a clip of the rant, “Sir, if this is not a good time we can certainly come back and discuss this later.” Stewart’s incisive and hilarious observations about Williams’ disgruntled reflections and his choice of seat weren’t the only target as the host pointed out other oddities about the setting. “But, look, let’s not focus on where he’s making the video, or his Katniss and Peeta fanfic shirt, or the cottage core wallpaper,” Stewart observed.
The oddest part of the Great American State Fair boondoggle wasn’t Williams’ rant, Stewart noted, but the fact that many of the performers share a booking agent — a man named Jeff Epstein. Stewart addressed the absurdity of the coincidental naming, saying “What the fuck? Jeff Epstein of Universal Attractions is in charge of — forgive me — recruiting talent for a Donald Trump party?”
Epstein has no apparent connection to the now-deceased human trafficker who was friendly with Trump.
“In planning our country’s 250th birthday, somebody had to go into Donald Trump’s office and say, ‘I know just the guy,’” Stewart continued. “How bad do you feel for that guy? After years of being ‘not that Epstein,’ he finally gets all of his acts books. It’s all coming up Epstein. And then the acts collapsed.”
Stewart got in a biting kicker.
“He finally thought he was going to get his happy ending — but nope,” Stewart said. “Once again they leave him hanging.”
English (US) · 