On June 14, 2026, a group of celebrities, including Julia Roberts, Jane Fonda, Joy Reid, and Robert De Niro, held a concert in New York City titled "Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment." The event was organized by the Committee for the First Amendment, a group revived by Fonda in 2025, and was framed as a counterprogramming effort to President Donald Trump’s Freedom 250 UFC match on the White House lawn.
Roberts urged attendees to 'breathe in all that hope' and 'breathe out all that fear,' while Fonda warned of government attacks on free speech, comparing the current political climate to the House Un-American Activities Committee era of the 1950s. De Niro criticized Trump’s administration, stating, 'I can’t love a country that’s led by Donald Trump and his sycophant Congress.' The event also honored Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen killed by an ICE agent in January 2026, with Roberts calling her 'an American woman, a queer woman who was doing the very best she could do to be good in an unjust world.'
The concert, streamed on multiple platforms, drew over 22,000 views on YouTube, significantly fewer than the millions who watched clips of Trump’s UFC event. Performances included Bette Midler’s anti-ICE rendition of Woody Guthrie’s 'All You Fascists Bound to Lose,' with lyrics altered to target immigration enforcement.
The Committee for the First Amendment has a history dating back to 1947, originally founded by Hollywood figures like John Huston. The event’s organizers emphasized free speech concerns, while critics, including Fox News, questioned the event’s funding sources and accused it of being a politically motivated distraction.