A trio of younger singers carried out a music devoted to Republican presidential entrance-runner Donald Trump on Jan. 13 at a rally in Pensacola, Fla. (Reuters)
Within hours of their efficiency at a Donald Trump rally in Pensacola, Fla., final January, the U.S.A. Freedom Kids have been a sensation.
You keep in mind the video: Three preteen women in star-spangled outfits crisply working by means of easy choreography as they lip-synced an upbeat replace to “Over There.”
That infectious efficiency kicked off a flurry of media appearances. The Freedom Kids informed “Inside Edition” that Trump advised them that he deliberate to listen to their CD all night. The group, which had been round for about 2½ years by that time, was a viral sensation largely inextricable from Trump himself.
Now, although, the relationship is totally different. Jeff Popick, father of the smallest Freedom Kid and writer of “Freedom’s Call” (the music carried out at the Trump rally), advised The Washington Post by telephone on Monday that he deliberate to file a lawsuit towards the campaign for violating its settlement with the group.
“This is not a billion-dollar lawsuit,” Popick stated. “I’m doing this because I think they have to do the right thing. And if this means having to go through the court system to enforce them doing the right thing, then that’s what I have to do. I’m not looking to do battle with the Trump campaign, but I have to show my girls that this is the right thing.”
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Popick is fast to clarify that the settlement was not written down, however, as an alternative, includes guarantees from numerous brokers of the Trump campaign which he says have been then damaged.
It began in Pensacola. When Popick first reached out to the Trump campaign about performing, he spoke with numerous individuals together with former campaign supervisor Corey Lewandowski. His understanding from the campaign was that the Kids would make two appearances in Florida, the place Popick lives. The first occasion did not come to fruition, and Popick says he requested for $2,500 in cost for the second efficiency, in Pensacola. The campaign made a counter-supply: How a few desk the place the group might presell albums? Popick took the deal.
When they arrived at the venue, although, there was no desk, Popick says. The outcome was “complete chaos,” he stated. “They clearly had made no provisions for that.”
Popick, believing that he was owed some alternate compensation, tried to contact the campaign afterward, with out luck. In addition to prices spent on promotional supplies for the nonexistent desk, Popick says, he additionally misplaced a number of promotional alternatives due to confusion over his relationship with the campaign.
When Trump made the sudden choice to skip the January Fox News debate and as an alternative maintain an occasion for veterans, a consultant of the campaign referred to as Popick to see if the Freedom Kids may carry out. The name got here the day earlier than the occasion, Popick says, which was being held in Des Moines at 6:30 p.m. With the promise that the publicity from the occasion can be “huge,” Popick readily agreed, and the youngsters and their mother and father packed up for a direct flight to Chicago and an extended drive to Iowa.
It wasn’t to be. When the aircraft landed, Popick had a message from the campaign staffer indicating that there was a change of plan. The campaign invited the performers to attend the rally, which they did, of their outfits. The campaign requested Popick not to speak to the media, he says, however then gave them seats inside arm’s size of the press. “They just were constantly coming over, wanting pictures,” Popick stated of the information media. “They wanted to take pictures, they wanted to ask questions — and I had to be a real jerk.” The value of the flights, rental automotive and lodge have been all absorbed by Popick.
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After that, he stored reaching out “again and again and again and again,” with out luck. He was handed round between staffers; calls went unreturned even after calls have been promised. Emails Popick despatched to the campaign (which he shared with The Post) element the interplay between himself and the campaign and his final request. “We are now asking and DEMANDING for what has been promised to us and is now long-overdue (and has been rightly earned by us); that is, a performance at the convention,” an e-mail dated July 9 reads. “Or, be made whole.”
An e mail to the campaign requesting their understanding of the settlement was not returned by our deadline.
“These are guys that insist they’re straight shooters,” Popick stated, “‘You may not like what we’re going to say, but we mean what we say and we say what we mean’ — and they just would not say anything of any substance!”
“I’ve invested a lot of time, effort, money,” he continued, “and it’s just been complete silence.”
It’s value noting that Popick’s story mirrors evaluation of Trump’s report in working with small enterprise house owners, some of whom allege that the Republican nominee failed to stay up to monetary and different commitments he’d made to them.
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Popick has consulted with an lawyer who thinks he has a case. “We are owed compensation or, as the agreement is, a performance. That’s what the agreement was,” he stated. “In lieu of compensation, in lieu of monetary compensation, that we would have this performance. It was largely a verbal contract, but a contract nonetheless and on two different occasions.” He expects to file the lawsuit inside a couple of weeks.
Popick got here into the relationship as a Trump fan. “I grew up in New York, where he was sort of a celebrity before he was a celebrity,” Popick stated. “I admired what he was able to accomplish. I read all of his books at this point back probably decades. … I was a fan before he was a candidate.”
He’s not sure, although, if he is nonetheless a fan.
“At this point, my position is that I have no position, really,” Popick stated. “What he’s done to my group or what he’s not done for my group doesn’t necessarily make him the best candidate, it doesn’t make him the worst candidate. I still have to mull that over. He might still be the best candidate as president of the United States — or not.”
“What I think I’ve learned,” Popick added, “is that I’m not qualified to be a political commentator.”
If you are curious, the album will probably be out in early September. “Freedom’s Call,” which included the line “President Donald Trump knows how to make America great,” won’t be on it.
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