Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello has long been a friend and advocate of diamond-certified rock legend Bruce Springsteen, having played together numerous times. Both artists have also been outspoken for their political beliefs, with Springsteen most recently getting into a war of words with current U.S. President Donald Trump.
To recap, Springsteen was performing at the Co-op Live in Manchester, UK earlier this month and prefaced his track “Land Of Hope And Dreams” with the following introduction:
“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. 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. 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!”
Later that night, ahead of playing “House Of A Thousand Guitars“, Springsteen added:
“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.”
Furthering his political commentary that night, Springsteen, also stated the following ahead of performing his track “My City Of Ruins“:
“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. In America the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. This is 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 has led to a more just and plural society. They are abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom. They are defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands.
They are removing residents off American streets and without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons. This is all happening now. A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government.
They have no concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American. The America I’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real and regardless of its faults is a great country with a great people. So we’ll survive this moment. Now, I have hope, because I believe in the truth of what the great American writer James Baldwin said, he said ‘in this world there isn’t as much humanity as one would like, but there’s enough.’ Let’s pray.”
Springsteen‘s comments incensed President Trump who took to his Truth Social platform shortly after to fire back:
“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, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country.
If I wasn’t elected, it would have been GONE by now! Sleepy Joe didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing, but 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 later followed up with the below post on his aforementioned social media platform:
“HOW MUCH DID KAMALA HARRIS PAY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FOR HIS POOR PERFORMANCE DURING HER CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT? WHY DID HE ACCEPT THAT MONEY IF HE IS SUCH A FAN OF HERS? ISN’T THAT A MAJOR AND ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION? WHAT ABOUT BEYONCÉ? …AND HOW MUCH WENT TO OPRAH, AND BONO??? I am going to call for a major investigation into this matter. Candidates aren’t allowed to pay for ENDORSEMENTS, which is what Kamala did, under the guise of paying for entertainment. In addition, this was a very expensive and desperate effort to artificially build up her sparse crowds. IT’S NOT LEGAL! For these unpatriotic “entertainers,” this was just a CORRUPT & UNLAWFUL way to capitalize on a broken system. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!”
Springsteen found support in Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder, who after the aforementioned exchange, went on to cover Springsteen‘s “My City Of Ruins” live during a May 16th set at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA.
Now Morello has fired off a new salvo against Trump during this past Sunday’s (May 25th) ‘Boston Calling‘ music festival at the Harvard Athletic Complex in Boston, MA. Ever politically outspoken, Morello has long been a critic of Trump, and earlier this year clarified that he and his Rage Against The Machine bandmates remain “sharply critical” of both the Republican and Democrat parties in the United States.
During his time onstage at ‘Boston Calling‘ Morello stood in solidarity with Springsteen and his condemnation of President Trump. Ahead of performing a cover of Springsteen‘s “The Ghost Of Tom Joad” — a track Rage Against The Machine themselves previously covered back in 2000 — Morello stated:
“Alright, this next tune I’m going to dedicate to my friend Bruce Springsteen. He’s been in a tussle with the president lately, and you know, Bruce is going after Trump. to Bruce, his whole life, he’s been about truth, justice, democracy, equality, and Trump‘s mad at him because Bruce draws a much bigger audience. Fuck that guy, this is ‘The Ghost Of Tom Joad‘.”
That wasn’t the only barb Morello had in store for the current U.S. administration during the aforementioned set though, with ‘Fuck Trump’ being displayed on a backdrop at one point, and the message of “Fuck I.C.E.” being displayed on the back of his guitar.
Morello, himself a long-time political activist, graduated from Harvard University with a BA in political science. That university are also currently in the sights of Trump‘s administration for not aligning with a number of its divisive policy changes. Morello championed Harvard in their stance against Trump, stating of their free online course, ‘We the People: Civic Engagement in a Constitutional Democracy’, that it was in part, a guide on understanding the U.S. government, the constitution and “how to recognize a dictatorship takeover of your country.”
Taking to social media today, May 27th, Morello summed up his time at the aforementioned festival, offering:
“FANTASTIC day at @bostoncalling rocking with dear friend @mrchuckd, supporting my alma mater @harvard’s resistance to Trump regime’s education bullying, standing up for my man @springsteen and sticking it to fascist minded fools one phat riff at a time. Authoritarians and billionaires think this country belongs to them but as Woody Guthrie reminds us, this land is your land. #GoCrimson”
