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. …