‘America’s Got Talent’ alum Jackie Evancho faces Trump inauguration backlash

There a wide array of different reports out there regarding whether or not President-elect Donald Trump and his team are having a hard time booking talent for his inauguration, but that’s admittedly not exactly our range of coverage. We’re a TV site first and foremost, and we do find it rather interesting now that a former “America’s Got Talent” runner-up in Jackie Evancho has found herself at the center of all of this.

Basically, all of this stems from Evancho being one of the first performers to be confirmed for the January event, and she will sing the National Anthem in front of potentially an enormous audience. The decision from her to sing at the event seems to be more publicity-related than political, since this gives her an enormous platform; to be fair, she also will potentially acquire a number of fans who consider themselves supporters of the President-elect.

However, at the same time, she’s also receiving already a lot of criticism, including some who are accusing her of being hypocritical for performing for Trump, while also having a transgender sister; some members of the Republican party have advocated laws that hurt members of the transgender community.

Speaking to People Magazine, Evancho made it clear that for the time being, she is choosing to focus the majority of her own attention on the people who are supporting her as opposed to those who are sending negativity her way:

“My family is kind of a big target. I have a transgender sister and so a lot of hate goes towards us … I also get a lot of love. We pay most attention to that.”

After looking at her Twitter feed earlier to see some of the reactions, we certainly think that this is the best philosophy possible, to go along with staying off of social media. Without getting into politics, Evancho has the right to perform anywhere she wants and to determine what’s right for her career. We’ll have to see if this particular risk pays off. (Photo: NBC.)