Bruce Springsteen has been closely associated with Democratic politics for much of the current century, launching the Vote For Change tour to defeat George W. Bush in 2004 and later performing on behalf of candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Kamala Harris.
This week, Springsteen took shots at Donald Trump while performing in Manchester, England.
Must watch as Bruce Springsteen opens his European Tour eviscerating Trump: “My home, the America I love that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration.” pic.twitter.com/4SFQFecjZB
— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) May 15, 2025
“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock ’n’ roll, in dangerous times,” Springsteen said, as the New York Times reported. “In my home, 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.”
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He went on to rip Trump for “taking sadistic pleasure in the pain that they inflict on loyal American workers” and accusing Trump of “rolling back historic civil rights legislation that has led to a more just and plural society.”
On Friday, on Truth Social, Trump returned fire.
“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,” Trump said in the post, which came the same morning he ripped Taylor Swift, who does not appear to have said anything about Trump recently. Trump had said that Swift is no longer as “hot,” since Trump declared last year that he hates her.
Trump went on to state that Springsteen “ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.'”
The idea that it’s wrong for Americans to criticize their president abroad has been invoked from time to time, most notably during the Bush Administration when the Dixie Chicks did it, but that standard has been applied inconsistently. It may be a norm of political propriety, but Trump has never much respected such norms on his end.
Photo courtesy of X screenshot.
