Springsteen

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1 26 STREETS MINNE

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AN 4 26

On Thursday morning, President Donald Trump posted a lengthy diatribe against rockstar Bruce Springsteen, calling the singer “boring,” accusing him of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” and disparaging his appearance before urging MAGA to “boycott his overpriced concerts, which suck.”

Security expert and Atlantic contributor Tom Nichols had a frank assessment of the president’s post, tweeting, “The President of the United States is an emotionally unstable man with obvious cognitive issues. We are in the middle of a war, he tanked an important speech to the nation, and this is what he's worried about.”

While Trump has attacked Springsteen before, this particular post seems to be in response to statements the singer made onstage Tuesday night during the kickoff of his latest tour.

“While working Americans struggle,” said the Boss, “our president and his family enrich themselves by billions of dollars trading on the people’s office in corruption unmatched in American history.”

He went on to assert that Trump is “destroying the American idea and our reputation around the world,” and that the U.S. is “no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave” but a “reckless, unpredictable, predatory rogue nation. That is this administration’s and this president’s legacy.”

Trump was, unsurprisingly, not happy about Springsteen’s assessment, saying the “Born in the USA” singer “looks like a dried up prune.”

As Nichols pointed out, Trump’s response came the morning after his national address on the war against Iran, which has caused gas prices to skyrocket and disrupted the global economy with no end in sight. The president’s fixation on Springsteen has prompted many to question his priorities.

“We are on the brink of World War III and a global recession, and Trump woke up thinking about Bruce Springsteen,” posted a popular America First account, the owner of which is a two-time Trump voter. “You can’t make this up.”

For his part, Springsteen had something to say about the conflict: “I want to begin tonight with a prayer for our men and women in service overseas. We are here in celebration and defense of our American ideals. The America I love that's been a beacon of hope and liberty around the world, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless, and treasonous administration. We ask you to join with us in choosing hope over fear, unity over division, and peace over war.”

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an 6 25

Sales of music legend Bruce Springsteen’s new album don’t appear to be suffering from President Donald Trump’s hate, according to Forbes.

“The Boss” released an unplanned EP, and in its second week of availability, it blew up on international charts, just in time for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s ‘Land of Hope and Dreams Tour’.

appears on two charts in the U.K. this frame, reports Forbes. The EP opened at No. 12 on the ‘Official Americana Albums’ chart, earning Springsteen his sixth career placement on that genre-specific tally. Last frame, ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’ entered the Top 10 on the ‘Official Albums Downloads’ chart, launching at No. 8. It reached a new peak of No. 6 this week.

The small six-song EP, which is a live recording from Springsteen’s concert series with the E Street Band, came out just after the singer/songwriter began lobbing incendiary comments at Trump.

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“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,” Springsteen, U.K. “Tonight we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!”

The rocker made sure to include his speech on his EP, which Forbes suspects may have helped turn it into a bestseller.

Trump quickly took Springsteen’s bait last month: “I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “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.”

Springsteen supporters reacted with “Back the Boss” signs in spots across America, and Europe appears to be hungry for an earlier version of America that Springsteen represents. Ashbury Park Press reports French audience members were waving U.S. flags at Springsteen and the E Street Band’s ‘Land of Hope and Dreams Tour’ at the Orange Vélodrome in Marseille, France. One fan wore a shirt stating, “In a world full of Donalds be a Bruce.”

“The Boss” is not the only veteran U.S. artist slamming Trump. Neil Young invited the president—who professed to be a longtime Neil Young fan—to check out his latest tour before the U.S. topples completely into martial law.

“When I tour the USA this summer, if there is not martial law by then which would make it impossible, let’s all come together and stand for American values,” Young posted on the Neil Young archives. “We will not be doing a political show. We will be playing the music we love for all of us to enjoy together. President Trump, you are invited. Come and hear our music just as you did for decades.”

Read the full Forbes report at this link.

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an 5 25

Like Taylor Swift, Oprah Winfrey, Robert De Niro and Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen was among the celebrities who endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris' 2024 presidential campaign and was disappointed when she narrowly lost to now-President Donald Trump.

The Boss isn't shy about attacking Trump during his concerts, and Trump is angrily railing against him.

Trump insulting celebrities is nothing new. But Rolling Stone's Asawin Suebsaeng, during an appearance on The New Republic's podcast posted on May 21, laid out some reasons why Trump's recent attacks on Springsteen and other celebrities are taking an increasingly dangerously "authoritarian" turn.

Trump, Suebsaeng emphasized during the interview, is going way beyond disagreeing with Springsteen politically — he is calling for a criminal investigation of him.

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Suebsaeng told New Republic podcast host Greg Sargent, "All Bruce Springsteen did was exercise his American constitutional right to free speech. He was doing it abroad while on tour — but all Donald Trump was reacting to there was Bruce Springsteen using constitutionally protected free speech to say: I don't like Donald Trump or what he is currently doing to the country…. And Donald Trump's reaction to that was to essentially issue a fatwa against Bruce Springsteen, Oprah Winfrey, and Beyoncé Knowles."

Sargent noted Suebsaeng's use the word "fatwa," pointing out that "it’s almost as if he's a radical cleric or something issuing a command to a whole army of followers out there." And Suebsaeng responded that Trump is leading an "authoritarian movement" that has a lot of supporters in the U.S.

Suebsaeng told Sargent, "Bruce Springsteen said something that pissed him off just a little bit. So he is someone who (Trump) has to threaten with a major federal investigation — a criminal investigation — and he is a head on which Donald Trump needs to bring the massive weight of the entire federal apparatus to crack down. It is a crusade that Donald Trump has been launching against the First Amendment and free expression in this country since at least his 2016 campaign. And it has only gotten worse since he became president the first time — and much, much, much worse and more bloodthirsty and more authoritarian since he’s become president the second time."

Listen to the full New Republic podcast at this link and read the transcript here.}:

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AN STATES 5 25

We’ve all heard about the nine Republican state Senators who decided they were going to start voting their conscience, only to be censured by their own party. As if they would somehow become contagious.

This series of events reminded me of something I’ve been wondering about, which is: Why it has become so fashionable to present ‘liberals’ as if we are dangerous, scary people. It is now one of those labels that Republicans throw around in order to discredit a person’s character. It showed up on every other flyer that I received during the last election cycle. And of course it’s one of those terms, for example “communist,” that most people probably wouldn’t be able to define if you asked them, even liberals themselves.

So I thought about the qualities that most of my friends have in common. And the top thing on that list would probably be curiosity. I hang out with people who always want to learn more, whether it’s about you, or about the history of the region where they live, or about whatever hobby they’re interested in. And of course that also means that they are readers. Because what is the best way to learn?

Another thing that most of my friends have in common is that they love people. They love meeting new people, they like to be in small groups where they can have discussions. They like to connect. And they like to help. I feel fortunate to know so many people who believe that helping others helps them become better people. And it also helps make the world a better place.

So far, I’m not seeing a lot to be scared of. But let’s keep looking.

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Most of my friends love the arts. They love how music and films and dance and visual arts force them to look at things a little differently. They love how songs and movies make them feel something, whether it’s warm or frightening or confusing or ecstatic, the arts bring strong emotional responses into our lives in a way that is always unpredictable and surprising.

Most of my friends also love to be outside. They love what the earth has to offer. They like the challenge of a long bike ride, or a hike into the mountains. They like to hunt and fish, or float one of the incredible rivers that flow through our beautiful state. They value having access to the best that Montana has to offer.

A few days ago, Bruce Springsteen, who is only three years younger than Trump but looks at least 10 years younger, opened his latest tour in Manchester, England by sitting down at the front of the stage and delivering a calm, measured criticism of the current president. He didn’t make anything up or call him a bunch of juvenile names. He didn’t threaten him. He just laid out his opinion of the man’s actions in a way that was thoughtful and most importantly, factual. Here’s how he opened his speech, and it’s pretty brilliant:

“In America, my home, they’re persecuting people for their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. That’s happening now. 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. They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just society. They’re abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those who are struggling for their freedom. That’s happening now. They are defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands. And they are removing residents off American streets without due process of law and deploying them to foreign detention centers and prisons. That’s happening now.”

So maybe that’s it. It’s the honesty.

Most of my friends have never been convicted of a felony. Most of them have never been accused of rape, especially by multiple sources. Most of my friends wouldn’t think of referring to another country as a “sh–hole country.” They wouldn’t think to lump an entire race of people into one group and make sweeping generalizations about those people. Most of my wealthy friends wouldn’t think of rubbing their wealth in your face, or bragging about the fact that they don’t pay taxes, because they do. Most of them wouldn’t brag about going into the dressing room of a bunch of teenage girls while they’re getting ready for a pageant.

Most of my friends wouldn’t encourage people to beat the crap out of other people. Most of them wouldn’t make up lies on the spot just to make others look bad because they got their feelings hurt.

So the only thing that I can think of that makes liberals scary is that they try like hell to be honest, and if there’s one thing that scares Republicans at this moment in time, it’s the truth. Springsteen is fortunate to be huge enough that he can lose a huge chunk of his fan base without worrying about his career going off the rails.

But of course that doesn’t stop Donald Trump from trying his damnedest to discredit the man. And among other things, that means hitting him over the head with the dreaded “liberal” label. It didn’t stop Springsteen from doing the same thing at his next few stops, to the dismay of many of his long-term fans, and as someone so accurately pointed out, have they not been paying attention to what this man has stood for from the beginning?

The saddest part about Trump’s tantrums is how utterly childish they are. He always resorts to the most basic insults, saying he never liked Springsteen and that he has no talent—a meaningless insult coming from a guy who pals around with Kid Rock and Ted Nugent. Trump has and always will resort to the lowest form of attack, and that is exactly why he is so threatened by someone like Bruce, who did just the opposite.

So I guess I’ll keep doing what most of my friends have been doing, trying to become better people, failing here and there, but always striving to improve. Telling the truth as well as we know how, without resorting to hissy fits when someone offers constructive criticism. And hopefully it will continue to scare the hell out of these people.

Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com.

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More than half a year has passed since Donald Trump narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the United States' 2024 presidential election, yet he continues to hold a grudge against celebrities who supported the former vice president — including Bruce Springsteen, Oprah Winfrey, Beyoncé and U2 leader Bono.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote, "HOW MUCH DID KAMALA HARRIS PAY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FOR HIS POOR PERFORMANCE?WHY DID HE ACCEPT THAT MONEY IF HE IS SUCH A FAN? ISN'T THAT ILLEGAL? WHAT ABOUT BEYONCÉ, OPRAH, AND BONO? I am calling for a major investigation."

Trump's obsession with these celebrities is receiving a lot of reactions on X, formerly Twitter.

X user Stefana Uzunova wrote, "I am wondering why President Trump even bothers to respond to Mr. Springsteen. Mr. Springsteen has not had a hit song in ages. He is trying to remain relevant by criticizing major politicians."

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But many other posts were critical of Trump, not the celebrities who supported Harris.

Democratic Wins Media posted video of Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder performing Springsteen's "My City of Ruins" as an expression of solidarity with The Boss and a statement against Trump.

Democratic Wins Media commented, "This is awesome. America is waking up."

Attorney Tracey Gallagher posted, "I was thinking your next rant was going to be Obama, but now it's Harris and Springsteen."

Author Oli London tweeted, "Trump slams Bruce Springsteen AGAIN, after the rocker went on another tirade against the President."

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MMA

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