Desperate for artists for Inauguration Day, Trump offers talent agents ambassadorships

Despite having Kanye West in his corner, Donald Trump is still having difficulty finding musicians to play at his inauguration. According to two talent bookers who spoke anonymously to the Wrap, Trump’s Presidential Inaugural Committee offered to reward them with ambassador positions if they could procure top singers to perform.

One talent manager described being offered “access to the administration” if he could lure major talent. “They said they were in the process of ‘figuring out posts, ambassadorships, and commissions’ if that was of any interest,” he said.

Another source also described receiving a “serious” ambassadorship offer, and that he was so shocked at the proposal that he almost dropped the phone. “Never in a million years have I heard something so crazy,” he said. Both declined the offers.

Trump’s team denied the allegations. “There is no truth to this insinuation,” said committee spokesperson Boris Epshteyn. “First-class entertainers are eager to participate in the inaugural events. The inauguration as a whole will be an exciting and uniting celebration of freedom and democracy. We will be releasing further details at the appropriate time.”

While ambassadorships are often handed out as rewards to campaign donors and fundraisers, offering such posts to talent bookers is “outside the norm,” particularly given that celebrities are usually willing to perform at such high-profile national events without compensation. Yet Trump’s team, — who can’t even book a high-school marching band — are reportedly willing to shell out big bucks in exchange for top talent.

Right now, America’s Got Talent singer Jackie Evancho is slated to sing the national anthem. Other names that have been floated are opera singer Andrea Bocelli, Kid Rock, and Ted Nugent. There was some speculation that Trump’s meeting with Kanye — in which they reportedly discussed the singer being “an ambassador of sorts” — was related to a possible inauguration performance, but so far, the pair are just happy to be “great friends.”

Trump is stoking his base on his pre-inaugural tour.
But is he building bridges?

By Philip Rucker and John Wagner
Politics
December 17 at 7:13 PM    

MOBILE, Ala. — He strode out on a catwalk at a football stadium here to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.” A 50-foot cedar tree, which aides installed behind his stage with a crane, was decorated with Christmas ornaments larger than human heads. His crowd, thousands deep, held up familiar signs (“Make America Great Again”) and reprised signature chants (“Lock her up!”).

“This is where it all began,” President-elect Donald Trump exhorted, basking in the adulation of the Alabamians who had come to see him Saturday afternoon in the same stadium where 16 months earlier he staged the first electric mega-rally of his improbable campaign.

This city in the nation’s Bible Belt was the symbolic last stop in Trump’s journey to the White House — the conclusion of a nine-city pre-inaugural roadshow.

Rather than projecting inclusiveness and striving to heal the wounds from the bitter election, as past presidents-elect have done, Trump has traveled on his “USA Thank You Tour” only to states he turned red on election night. He has whipped up his massive crowds, and they in turn have displayed their allegiance — a powerful reminder to members of Congress that it could be politically dangerous to cross him.

“It’s a movement,” Trump declared in Mobile. “Don’t forget, they didn’t know you existed until Election Day — and then they said, ‘Where the hell did all those people come from?’ ”

As Trump assembles his administration and prepares to govern, he has continued the divisive rhetoric and showmanship of his campaign. He has mocked his opponents, sneered at the media and trumpeted his electoral feats. To the nearly 54 percent of voters who cast ballots for someone else, Trump’s message has been, in short: Get on board or get left behind.

Trump’s tone in the run-up to his Jan. 20 inauguration poses a challenge as he seeks to govern a deeply divided nation and build popular support for his policies. And as he tries to pivot from a rollicking campaign, Trump is struggling to tame the army of passionate followers he has playfully called “wild beasts.”

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But the campaign is now over, he said. Victory is in hand. The inauguration is a month away. And Trump tried to imagine for his fans how they ought to behave: “Now you’re laid-back, you’re cool, you’re mellow, right?”  Wrong.

Trump himself has hardly been a model of mellowness. He has used his tour stops to settle scores — with Evan McMullin, the Republican who waged an independent campaign against him in Utah; Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), who resisted Trump’s candidacy; CNN’s John King, who in nightly pre-election analyses on the “magic wall” predicted that Trump would not reach 270 electoral votes; and the media generally, which Trump faulted for “dishonest” polls.

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“Sometimes, during this campaign, he was a little lippy on the mouth. I think it would be better if he toned it down, and I think he will,” said Craig Harrison, 45, a construction worker who showed up at Trump’s first tour stop in Cincinnati with a flag draped around his shoulders that was emblazoned with Trump’s slogan. Harrison said his friends called him “Super Trump.”

Trump’s pre-inaugural posture is unlike any previous president-elect, historians said.

“I’ve never seen a president that continues to campaign instead of reaching out to voters that didn’t like him,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. “He’s shunning Hillary Clinton’s supporters and almost acting like they don’t matter. . . . I think he sees himself as a revolutionary figure, and you’re either going to join the Trump revolution or you’re not.”

Trump’s supporters hope he continues campaign-style rallies as president.

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“He has to keep an open line to the people,” said Sue Ann Balch, 61, an immigration lawyer in Alabama. “I know how it is. You catch Potomac fever and forget everything.” Trump agrees.

“They’re saying, ‘As president, he shouldn’t be doing rallies.’ But I think we should, right? We’ve done everything else the opposite. This is the way you get an honest word out,” he said in Mobile.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-is-stoking-his-base-on-his-pre-inaugural-tour-but-is-he-building-bridges/2016/12/17/a74a0f0a-c3ad-11e6-8422-eac61c0ef74d_story.html?utm_term=.b91be30bc337

Michael Moore calls for protesters to 'disrupt' Trump's ...

FOX News · 11 days ago
Dec 07, 2016 · Michael Moore is encouraging people to protest President-elect Donald Trump's upcoming inauguration.

I'd volunteer to join a kazoo marching band ...if we could all wear those infamous pointed hats; yes, those KKK white hooded outfits that are so popular among his voters ...

sassy wrote:Maybe he'll get his daughter to be the entertainment, after all, it appears she is going to take on the 'First Lady' role, how bloody weird is that!

No wonder the buffoon won't accept a salary; he's reaming us big time and his adoring masses think it just OK! 

sassy wrote:Maybe he'll get his daughter to be the entertainment, after all, it appears she is going to take on the 'First Lady' role, how bloody weird is that!

eddie wrote:

sassy wrote:Maybe he'll get his daughter to be the entertainment, after all, it appears she is going to take on the 'First Lady' role, how bloody weird is that!

Seriously? That is weird! And is it even allowed?

eddie wrote:Why would his daughter be stepping up and not his wife?  Makes no sense unless his wife is really against doing the job.

Unless his daughter is being prepped for running herself one day....

Malenia and Barron won't be moving into the WH; Malenia want's Barron to finish his school year in NYC, so Ivanka will be moving into the WH to 'act' as hostess when her dear DADDY needs her to be! 

sassy wrote:He's making up the 'rules' as he goes along!!!!!!

**BINGO** and you don't live here but you see the method of his madness