Trump attacks artists dropping out of US Freedom 250 concert and mulls appearing himself

Performers Young MC, Poison frontman Bret Michaels and country singer Martina McBride raised concerns the event will be political.

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Freedom 250, the group behind the Great American State Fair, unveiled the artists on Wednesday for the 16-day event planned on the National Mall in Washington DC between 25 June and 10 July.

The group was launched last year by the Trump administration and the president appointed its CEO, but it says the event is non-partisan.

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he might instead use the occasion to give a "major speech" in Washington DC, calling the artists who dropped out "third rate".

Freedom 250 has said it was a nonprofit "dedicated to uniting Americans around the nation's 250th anniversary".