Independent country music artist Alexis Wilkins is responding to the controversy over her latest live gig booking at the upcoming Great American State Fair event, part of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, in Washington, telling her critics that she has been hired on her merits as a singer and not because she is the long-term girlfriend of FBI Director Kash Patel.

Wilkins, 27, is unflappably resisting the notion that she was chosen to perform the National Anthem at the troubled President Trump-touted event that quickly saw multiple major artists bow out. She was added to the dwindling lineup on Tuesday amid the ongoing controversy over booking the event set to take place on the National Mall.

“What a great honor to be a part of the 250th birthday of this great nation!,” Wilkins wrote on X on Tuesday about the last-minute booking, including an image of herself singing with the Washington Monument in the background.

Within a couple of hours, Wilkins’ replies to the post were flooded with accusations of favoritism, questioning the use of taxpayer funds to book her and mocking her sincerity about being chosen as a performer following high-profile exits from the event. Wilkins was quick to defend her participation and her merits as a musical act.

“I have been a country music artist for years now. I have had a successful career in both music and commentary/strategy,” she wrote. “People don’t get to negate that for clicks or headlines. I was invited to sing this anthem on my own accord, as I have been many other places throughout my career.”

Wilkins began her journey as a country singer in 2020 and has mostly sung at small, private events attended by conservatives. She has released one extended play album and several standalone singles. The single concert date on her website is an upcoming gig at a Chicago restaurant venue in July; over the weekend, she was on the bill at a New Jersey country music festival.

Wilkins’ response on X on Tuesday to critics then became a list which, while slapping down some claims about her booking at the event, unleashed her frustration as it addressed the criticism she has been subjected to since she began dating Patel after meeting him at a party in 2023.

“2. I am not accepting payment for this great honor,” she wrote, addressing a comment from a freelance journalist Sara Higdon. “3. The Freedom250 entire celebration is on a fundraising arm; neither UFC nor any National Mall celebrations are ‘taxpayer funded’ (you would think, as a journalist, this would be something she would know or at least look into). I’m no longer accepting false narratives and total sham accusations that diminish my hard work and earned accomplishments, so please expect this kind of response to continue.”

As Wilkins has struggled to launch her career in country music from Nashville, where she now lives, her romantic relationship with Patel has made her known for all the wrong reasons. She’s become a target of liberal taxpayers who insist the security detail assigned to her and lavish transportation is excessive and out of line for the girlfriend of a cabinet member. Wilkins’ January trip to Palm Desert, California, for a gig singing for a few dozen conservatives, involved a three-man SWAT team and was capped off with a two-hour ride to LAX airport; a trip to England with Patel to a secret national security conference at an exclusive resort was paid for by taxpayers, as was his travel to see her perform on multiple occasions.

But she is facing dozens of threats daily and some are remarkably graphic, Ben Williamson, an F.B.I. spokesman, told The New York Times in February. Four SWAT team agents and two vehicles are now utilized to provide her with full-time protection, on Patel’s orders.

Ahead of her current full-time focus on her music career but after she began dating Patel, Wilkins took a press secretary position with conservative congressman Rep. Abraham Hamadeh, a friend of the FBI director. After leaving that position a month in, she worked for three months at Women for Gun Rights as the director of strategic communications; that position lasted just a few months.

“America Is Back: A Kick-Off Celebration For The Great American State Fair” is set for Wednesday night on the National Mall. It’s sponsored by the Trump-founded Freedom 250 organization and will feature musical performances by Lee Greenwood and Christopher Macchio; it’s set to include, according to its website, “military flyovers, ceremonial presentations, performances by ‘The President’s Own’ United States Marine Band, the U.S. Army Band ‘Pershing’s Own,’ Armed Forces choirs,” and more. Trump, who recently called for the event’s cancellation, is the headlining act.