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Two days after Bruce Springsteen opened his “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour, calling the Trump administration “corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless and treasonous,” Donald Trump unsurprisingly hit out at back with an angry post on Truth Social.
“Bad and deadly dull singer Bruce Springsteen, who looks like a dried-up plum that has been wreaked upon by a really bad plastic surgeon, has long suffered from an incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, sometimes called TDS,” wrote the sitting president of the United States. “The guy is a total loser who is spreading hate against a president who won an election in a landslide – including the majority of the overall vote, all seven swing states, and 86 percent of the counties across America. Under Sleepy Joe and the Democrats, our country was DEAD, and now we have by far the ‘hottest’ country in the world. MAGA SHOULD BOYCOTT ITS OVERPRICED CONCERTS, WHICH ARE CRAP. SAVE YOUR PASS MONEY EARNED. AMERICA IS BACK!!! President DJT.”
It’s not the first time that the two have been at loggerheads. At the height of the 2016 campaign, Springsteen told Rolling Stone, “The Republic is essentially under siege by an idiot. The whole thing is tragic. Without exaggerating, it’s a tragedy for our democracy… The ideas he’s pushing into the mainstream are all extremely dangerous – white nationalism and the alt-right.”
Springsteen and Trump: a long feud
Four years later, Springsteen picked it up again as host of his SiriusXM show “From My Home to Yours.” “A good portion of our beautiful country has, in my view, been thoroughly hypnotized, brainwashed by a con man from Queens,” he said. “And when you mix in some chauvinism, false patriotism, fear of a black world, vanity, narcissism, paranoia and conspiracy theories, and a portion of the nation falls into mass madness and is on the verge of violence, you have the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime.”
Last year, shortly after Springsteen opened his European “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour with an anti-Trump speech, the president responded with a post on Truth Social. “Springsteen is ‘stupid as a bean,'” Trump wrote, “and didn’t see what was going on – or did he (which would be even worse!)? This parched ‘plum’ of a rocker (his skin is all dried up!) should SHUT HIS MOUTH until he gets back into the country, that’s just ‘standard’. Then we’ll all see how things go for him!”
Three days later he followed up with an even angrier outburst. “HOW MUCH DID KAMALA HARRIS PAID BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FOR HIS WEAK PERFORMANCE DURING HER PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN? WHY DID HE TAKE THAT MONEY IF HE’S SUCH A FAN OF HER? ISN’T THAT A LARGE AND ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION? AND WHAT ABOUT BEYONCÉ? …AND HOW MUCH WENT TO OPRAH AND BONO??? I will demand a full investigation into this matter. Candidates must not pay ANY SUPPORT, which is what Kamala did – under the guise of funding entertainment.”
Springsteen unfazed by the headwind
Despite the backlash, Springsteen continues to say what he thinks. On the opening night of his tour on March 31, he stopped the music several times to rail against the government. That may cost him some fans – but Springsteen recently told the Minneapolis Tribune that it doesn’t worry him.
“My job is very simple: I do what I want to do, I say what I want to say, and then people can say what they want to say about it,” said Springsteen. “Those are the rules of my game. That’s fine with me. I’m not worried about losing that part of your audience. I’ve always had a sense of what cultural role we play, and I’m still deeply committed to that idea of the band. The backlash is just part of it. I’m ready for it all.”
