Donald Trump doesn’t care that Bruce Springsteen was “Born in the USA.”
The president let it be known on Truth Social Friday that he didn’t appreciate Springsteen “speaking badly” about him and his administration at the Boss’ “Land of Hope and Dreams” concert in Manchester, England, Wednesday night, especially because the rock ‘n’ roll legend did so when he was out of the country.
In fact, Trump invoked Springsteen’s location in the U.K. in his warning to the singer that he should “KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the country.” It certainly sounded as though the commander in chief was threatening the internationally renowned recording arts some kind of consequence for calling his administration “corrupt” and “treasonous” — and doing so while abroad.
Trump also mysteriously and menacingly said, “That’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll see how how it goes for him!”
President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks with reporters after announcing a trade deal with United Kingdom in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, May 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
What kind of consequence Trump appears to have in mind for Springsteen is anyone’s guess. But trying to sic the Department of Homeland Security on him sounds like a move that would be in this administration’s playbook. Perhaps DHS could muck up the New Jersey native’s ability to return to the United States at the end of his tour in early July. But under what legal authority? Again, that would be anyone’s guess.
Maybe Trump was all bluster with his warning. Meanwhile, if nothing else, Trump got to use his Truth Social rant to hurl insults at Springsteen, calling the 75-year-old, multi-award-winning artist an overrated, “no-talent hack” and a “dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker.”
But Trump calling Springsteen untalented is curious, considering that the former reality TV star played his “Born in the USA” — without his permission — at political rallies during his first campaign for president in 2016. Springsteen is among a number of top musicians, including Adele, Beyonce, Celine Dion, Guns N’ Roses and Mick Jagger, who have opposed the MAGA leader using their their music to promote his campaign and agenda.
Trump’s beef with Springsteen followed the singer taking time out of his performance Wednesday night to deliver a series of rousing, blistering speeches aimed at the “unfit” president.
Performing with the E Street back, Springsteen introduced the song that gives the tour its name and said: “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.”
Under the Trump administration, Springsteen said, people are being “persecuted for using their right to free speech and dissent,” “the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death,” and its leaders are taking “sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers” while “rolling back historic civil rights legislation.”
Springsteen also said the Trump administration is “abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators,” defunding U.S. universities that “won’t bow down to their ideological demands,” and “removing residents off American streets and, without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons.”
The musician has been a vocal critic of both Trump administrations, while long supporting Democratic causes and candidates. Springsteen notably campaigned for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s respective campaigns.
On Truth Social, Trump zeroed in on Springsteen’s support for Biden. He said that Springsteen, a “pushy, obnoxious jerk,” was too “dumb” to see that Biden was “a mentally incompetent FOOL” and “our WORST EVER president ever who came close to destroying our country.”
If there’s any consolation for Springsteen, he wasn’t the only famous musician that the president insulted Friday on Truth Social. He was “on the warpath,” TMZ said. He also posted a message that said that Taylor Swift is “no longer HOT.” Trump wanted to take credit for Swift’s declining “hotness” for declaring “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” after she endorsed former Kamala Harris for president.
