DISCLAIMER: This article was first published in January 2025
During the height of Beatlemania, John Lennon once suggested that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus,” leading to great controversy in 1966. Almost 60 years later, Donald Trump indicated he was as popular as The Beatles and Elvis Presley.
Per The Daily Beast, Trump commented at his Doral golf resort in Florida.
“We get on, we have 25-30,000 people on, just in a congressional area, and they win easy,” Trump said, per the report. “It works for Elvis the Beatles, and it doesn’t work for anyone else—but it works for Trump.”
Trump: It works with Elvis, the Beatles. It does not work with anyone else, but it works for Trump. pic.twitter.com/nxkf1Dm391
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 27, 2025
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“Now we raised a lot of money, a tremendous amount, and our tele-town halls are something that’s very special that nobody else is able to even contemplate using… We’ve gotten a lot of people elected with those tele-town halls.”
It’s unclear why Trump believes that the Beatles or Elvis held “tele-town halls,” although Presley performed a concert to raise money for the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in 1961.
Trump has made similar comparisons, including likening himself to Elvis in a 2018 visit to Tupelo, Miss., Presley’s birthplace.
“Other than the blond hair, when I was growing up, they said I looked like Elvis,” Trump said at the 2018 stop. “Can you believe it? I always considered that a great compliment.”
The estate of one Beatle, George Harrison, is among the many entities that have objected to Trump’s use of their music at rallies and campaign events after Ivanka Trump entered the stage to the Harrison-written Beatles song “Here Comes the Sun” at the 2016 Republican convention.
“The unauthorized use of ‘Here Comes the Sun’ at the RNC is offensive & against the wishes of the George Harrison estate,” the estate’s account on what was then called Twitter said in 2016. It is commonplace for musicians to complain, write cease-and-desist letters, or even sue when politicians they dislike use their music. However, some experts doubt whether musicians have the power to prevent the use of their music in that way.
The unauthorized use of #HereComestheSun at the #RNCinCLE is offensive & against the wishes of the George Harrison estate.
— George Harrison (@GeorgeHarrison) July 22, 2016
The comparisons illustrate another thing about Trump: He has a great love for showbiz, and specifically for the showbiz touchstones of a long-ago era. After all, the Beatles broke up in 1970, while Elvis died in 1977.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
