Rock legend Bruce Springsteen has taken a swipe at US President Donald Trump in an Instagram post announcing a spring tour “in defence of America”.
Springsteen and the E Street Band announced on Wednesday morning (AEDT) the launch of their Land of Hope and Dreams American tour starting March 31 in Minneapolis, which will kick off a 20-date run that blends arena rock with a message centred on democracy, freedom and what the singer calls the defence of the American ideal.
“We are living through dark, disturbing and dangerous times, but do not despair – the cavalry is coming!” Springsteen said in a video posted to Instagram.
“We will be rocking your town in celebration and in defence of America – American democracy, American freedom, our American Constitution and our sacred American dream, all of which are under attack by our wannabe king and his rogue government in Washington, DC.”
The announcement comes just weeks after Springsteen dedicated his song Streets of Minneapolis to the people of that city, and criticised Trump’s ongoing immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) operations in the city.
“It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbours and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good,” he wrote, naming the two people who were fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis last month.
In January, following Good’s death, Springsteen made a surprise appearance at a charity fundraiser in New Jersey where he dedicated a song to the mother of three while pointedly criticising ICE operations in Minneapolis.
Springsteen told the crowd on January 19: “If you believe in the power of the law and that no one stands above it, if you stand against heavily armed mass federal troops invading an American city using Gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens, if you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest, then send a message to this president.”
Springsteen also quoted Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who had used an expletive to tell ICE to leave the city. He then dedicated his song The Promised Land, which tells of a young working-class man striving for a brighter future, to Good.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson responded: “Unfortunately for Bruce, no one cares about his bad political opinions. And if he actually believed in the power of the law, he would understand that criminal illegal aliens should be deported, that impeding federal law enforcement operations is a crime, and that officers have a right to act in self-defence if an individual is using their car as a deadly weapon.”
Springsteen has regularly lashed Trump and his policies and when he endorsed former Kamala Harris’ campaign in 2024, and at the time described Trump as the “most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime”.
Trump then said on social media that Springsteen “ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT”, and demanded a “major investigation” into the singer and other celebrities, including Beyoncé and Oprah Winfrey.
During a UK tour last year, Springsteen said at the opening show in Manchester: “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 last check on power after the checks and balances of government have failed are the people, you and me. It’s in the union of people around a common set of values now that’s all that stands between a democracy and authoritarianism. At the end of the day, all we’ve got is each other. There’s some very weird, strange, and dangerous shit going on out there right now.
“In America they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now.”
To which Trump replied: “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 … Springsteen is dumb as a rock.”
Springsteen then released a live EP recorded on that opening night. The upcoming dates are the US leg of that same tour.
With AP
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Chris Hook is Culture News Editor Sydney for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.From our partners
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