Bruce Springsteen slams Donald Trump again despite threats from the president
Bruce Springsteen ignored Donald Trump’s warning to “keep his mouth shut” and lambasted the US president again on the second night of his tour.
The ‘Born in the USA’ singer originally slammed Trump on the first night of his ‘Land of Hopes and Dreams’ tour in Manchester on May 14th. Here, he said, “America is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration.”
Springsteen then went on to call for action from his audience, asking for “all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism, and let freedom ring.” He later criticised the foreign policy, defunding of universities, and his stance on immigration.
Trump soon reacted against Springsteen on his social media platform, Truth Social, writing: “I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States. Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country.”
After blasting Springsteen’s support of Biden, he then seemingly threatened the singer, adding, “This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare’. Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”
Many approached Springsteen’s second show at the Co-Op Live on May 17th with addled curiosity, intrigued to see whether he’d drop the debate. Instead, ‘The Boss’ reaffirmed his position via a three-minute speech. He stressed the importance of his stance: “Things are happening right now that are altering the very nature of our country’s democracy, and they’re too important to ignore.”
The singer then repeated similar words from his first show, including comments on the administration defunding American universities, the rolling back of civil rights legislation and siding with dictators, “against those who are struggling for their freedoms.”
“In my home, they’re persecuting people for their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. That’s happening now,” Springsteen said. “In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. That’s happening now. In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers.”
His words on class segmentation and economic inequality are especially pertinent, given that musician and Trump confidant Kid Rock slammed Springsteen’s public anti-Trump stance using the same rhetoric. Rock said: “This guy’s got, what, 500 million, a billion dollars… and is out there playing like he’s a working-class hero. And really, to me, just wants to be… in good standings with the Hollywood elite…”
Springsteen finished, like his previous speech, with a positive note. “The America I’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real, and regardless of its many faults, it’s a great country with a great people, and we will survive this moment. Well, I have hope, because I believe in the truth of what the great American writer James Baldwin said. He said, ‘In this world, there isn’t as much humanity as one would like, but there’s enough’.”
Springsteen will play one more night at the Co-Op Live on October 20th, after which he will hit stops in Lille, Marseille, Liverpool, Berlin, Prague, Frankfurt, San Sebastian, Gelsenkirchen, and finally Milan.
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