The grand opening of former President Barack Obama’s much-anticipated presidential library in Chicago, Illinois, will be packed with award-winning artists on Thursday — a stark contrast to the fallout from President Donald Trump’s Great American State Fair lineup.
The former president’s nonprofit organization announced that rock star (and vocal Trump critic) Bruce Springsteen will join Christina Aguilera, Common, Eddie Vedder, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Marc Anthony, The Roots, Stevie Wonder, Tems and U2’s Bono & The Edge at Thursday’s opening ceremony, streamed live on the organization’s website.
Actress Marsai Martin, best known for her role in “Black-ish,” will also make a special appearance, as will the Illinois National Guard’s Color Guard, which will perform in the opening ceremony.
Some social media users have congratulated the Obamas for the star-studded list. Others used the opportunity to take a dig at the Trump-backed Great American State Fair concert series scheduled for June 24, where most acts backed out less than 24 hours after the lineup was announced.
“Hmm, actual talent. Trump should try that sometime,” one reply on X read. “And not one of them will announce that they were tricked into doing it,” another user wrote. Country superstar Martina McBride, one of the scheduled acts for the Freedom 250 concert series, told followers she had been “presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event but that turned out to be misleading.”
Trump reacted to the performers dropping out by announcing he would headline the event himself instead, giving a speech. Country artist Lee Greenwood is also set to perform at the event.
The $850 million Obama Presidential Center campus opening sparked rage among Trump and his MAGA loyalists ahead of its opening. The current president himself even bashed the library’s design with AI slop.
Right-wing radio pastor Todd Friel also rebuked the sprawling center, which will feature basketball courts, gardens, ball fields, a playground for children and an eight-story museum, as an “intentional slight to God.”
The former president’s library will open less than a week after Trump’s bizarre UFC spectacle at the White House South Lawn, where fighter Josh Hokit received backlash for publicly calling former first lady Michelle Obama a man.
