They have some similarities, Bruce Springsteen and Donald Trump, 70 -year -old boys with homes in New Jersey and large electoral districts among medium -sized American and older white men. And both, in very different aspects, are the boss.
That’s where it ends.
The veteran rock star, for a long time a political opponent of the president, stood up as one of Trump’s most prominent cultural critics last week with a verbal demolition of a British scenario.
As is his nature, Trump is fighting, hard. He calls Springste in a “dry rocker plum” and is even bringing Beyoncé to the fray.
Monday, the president Suggested Springsteen and Beyoncé It should be investigated to see if the appearances they made in the name of their democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, the past fall represented an illegal campaign donation.
Open a tour in Manchester, England, Springsteen He told his audience Last Thursday that “the America that I love, the America that I have written has been a lighthouse of hope and freedom for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treacherous administration.”
He added: “We ask all those who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment who elevate with us, lift their voices against authoritarianism and let freedom sound.”
Springsteen Then he referred to a “president not suitable and a dishonest government” that “has no concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American.”
The next morning, Trump called Springsteen Very overvalued. “He never liked, he never liked his music or his radical left policy and, more importantly, he is not a talented guy, just an aggressive and unpleasant fool,” he wrote on social networks.
“This was dried by a rocker (his skin is stunted) should keep his mouth closed until he returns to the country,” he said.
The next night, also in Manchester, Springsteen repeated his criticism.
“It is not surprising what Springsteen’s political inclinations are and have been for many decades,” said music writer Alan Light, author of the next rumors of “Don’t Stop: Why (Still) Loving Fleetwood Mac.” “He is someone who has been opened in his music and his actions.”
The chief’s statements showed that he was not afraid to speak “at a time when so many people and institutions are circling,” said Light.
It is not the first time that Springsteen is spoken against Trump, or a republican president.
When former President Ronald Reagan made reference to the “Message of Hope” of Springsteen in a campaign stop during the peak of popularity “Born in the US From New Jersey, Chris Christie, a fan of his music.
Springsteen has campaigned for Trump’s opponents, including Harris the past fall. In 2020, he said that “a good part of our good country, to my eye, has been thoroughly hypnotized, washed by a Queens scammer.”
He knows that the external reference still asked a man who built his own tower in Manhattan and ascended to the presidency. Trump often stays at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Springsteen grew in New Jersey, you may have heard, and live in Colts Neck, New Jersey, now.
Trump does not hesitate to pursue the largest musical names that speak against them, such as Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. But the political risk may be lower; It is less likely that your youngest and feminine audience cross Trump’s central constituency.
During his career, Springsteen has challenged his audience politically beyond the presidential backups. The 1995 album “The Ghost of Tom Joad” documented the life of immigrants with difficulties: Mexican and Vietnamese among them. And his 2001 song “American Skin (41 Shots)”, criticized the shooting by the New York City Police agents of an unarmed guinean immigrant called Amadou Diallo, angry some of the blue neck segments of his fans base.
Clearly, Springsteen has conservative fans and some who would like to stay away from politics, said Light. Even so, “40 years later, it is difficult to imagine what they think would happen” with Trump, he said.
While Trump made a point of reference to Springsteen’s criticism in a show abroad, he and the band and the street have not acted in the United States since before the 2024 elections. His tour last year reached great mortality issues, less political. He has several European tours dates this year in July and has not announced any new American show.
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David Bauder writes about media intersection and entertainment for AP. Follow it in http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social
