Trump lashes out at Bruce Springsteen after ‘unfit for office’ jab

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Donald Trump is firing back at Bruce Springsteen after the rocker delivered strong rebuke of the president during the opening night of his European tour.

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“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,” he told the crowd in Manchester, England, this week, according to a post shared on his website and YouTube channel. “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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Springsteen, who supported Trump’s Democratic rival Kamala Harris during last year’s election, said the president has “no concern or idea of what it means to be deeply American.”

The Born in the U.S.A. singer also said that most of Trump’s colleagues have failed to shield Americans “from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government.”

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He also accused the Trump administration of “abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom” and “defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands.”

“They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just and plural society,” Springsteen said. “They are removing residents off American streets and, without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centres and prisons. This is all happening now.”

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After Springsteen’s lengthy critique, Trump fired back in a Truth Social post in which he called the 20-time Grammy winner “a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country.”

“Springsteen is ‘dumb as a rock,’ and couldn’t see what was going on, or could he (which is even worse!)? This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!” Trump added.

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Springsteen’s comments drew a mixed response on social media, with one person suggesting that the singer wouldn’t “have the the courage to say that in the USA, only in Europe.”

When he endorsed Harris last fall, Springsteen called Trump, “the most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime.”

“His disdain for the sanctity of our Constitution, the sanctity of democracy, the sanctity of the rule of law and the sanctity of the peaceful transfer of power should disqualify him from the office of president ever again. He doesn’t understand the meaning of this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American,” he said.

Springsteen had previously spoken out against Trump, calling his first presidency a “f—ing nightmare” and telling The Atlantic in 2020 that the then-president was “a threat to our democracy.”

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“He simply makes any kind of reform that much harder. I don’t know if our democracy could stand another four years of his custodianship. These are all existential threats to our democracy and our American way of life,” Springsteen said.

In a 2018 interview with Esquire, Springsteen said Trump was “deeply damaged at his core.” In a 2016 chat with Rolling Stone, Springsteen called Trump a “moron.”

And before Trump became president the first time, Springsteen said he was “afraid of his lasting effect on the country” when he spoke with New Yorker editor David Remnick back in 2016.

“When he was just a big, sort of bloviating New York billionaire, he could be highly entertaining, and funny,” Springsteen admitted. “But he’s not funny as a presidential candidate.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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