“The America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration,” Bruce Springsteen declared from a Manchester, U.K. stage May 14. At the kick-off show of his newly rechristened Land of Hope and Dreams Tour with the E Street Band, Springsteen framed his criticism of Donald Trump in patriotism: “The America that I’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real, and regardless of its faults, is a great country with a great people. And we will survive this moment.”
As discussed in the latest episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Springsteen’s multiple onstage speeches, punctuated with on-message songs (“Land of Hope and Dreams,” Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom”) were arguably a masterclass in opposition messaging. His insistence on the existence of another, better version of the country should be instructive to many floundering Democrats — especially considering the extent to which his words captured Donald Trump’s attention. To hear the whole episode, which breaks down the Trump/Springsteen war of words and much more, go here for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just press play above.
Two days after Springsteen’s remarks, Trump took to Truth Social to call his critic a “dried out prune of a rocker” whose “skin is all atrophied” and warned him to “KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country,” with the ominous addendum, “then we’ll all see how it goes for him!” The threats escalated at 1:34 a.m. May 19, the night before his scheduled call with Vladimir Putin about Ukraine, “HOW MUCH DID KAMALA HARRIS PAY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FOR HIS POOR PERFORMANCE DURING HER CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT?” he wrote. “I am going to call for a major investigation into this matter.”
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Trump also demanded investigations into Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, and somehow even Bono — who, as Rolling Stone‘s Andy Greene points out in the new episode, “played no role in the election whatsoever.” As discussed in the episode, Trump had it backwards: campaigns are actually required to pay fair market value for production costs to avoid undisclosed contributions. (When Rolling Stone asked the White House about the baseless threats this week, a spokesperson shot back, “accountability for a class of people who act as if they’re above the law may be uncomfortable for Rolling Stone, but it’s refreshing to the American people.”)
Of course, it wasn’t just Springsteen’s eloquent framing of his opposition that irritated Trump — as his inclusion of Swift, Beyoncé, and Winfrey in his threats suggests, he is a creature of fame and showbiz who is exquisitely sensitive to the power of celebrity. He’s won two elections, but still faces the irksome reality that pop culture is far from still fully MAGA-fied.
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The episode also ponders why musicians have been relatively quiet about the Trump Administration since January, suggesting a combination of an atmosphere of fear, a sense that 2017-style Resistance messaging failed, and the fact that it’s still more socially acceptable for younger acts to criticize Democrats from the left than to mention Trump. Still, artists including Neil Young and Eddie Vedder have offered support for Springsteen’s remarks, and MJ Lenderman covered “Darkness on the Edge of Town” in an apparent show of solidarity.
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