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Bruce Springsteen Will Never Surrender to Donald Trump (NYT op-ed from Eric Alterman)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/25/opinion/bruce-springsteen-trump-conflict.html-snip-
Perhaps Mr. Trump worried that a simple, uncompromised patriotic message on offer from a man who is arguably the nation’s most beloved male rock star would break through to his fans. The appeal of both men is clear. Mr. Trump and Mr. Springsteen were born three years apart and felt, in their way, like they were outsiders. Both are now very wealthy while credibly professing to speak to and for the denizens of America’s working class who live paycheck to paycheck. They reach people who could never in a lifetime earn enough to purchase a membership to Mar-a-Lago (much less buy enough $TRUMP memecoins to have dinner with the president) and may not have been able to see “Springsteen on Broadway” or in concert (where Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing” process sent some of the best tickets of a recent tour into the mid-four-figure range) and still pay that month’s rent. Most important, however, each man embodies a competing vision of the much-maligned American dream.
Raised working class, Mr. Springsteen started out as a punkish prowler of the mean streets of the late-night, low-rent Jersey Shore but has since evolved into an icon who has come to symbolize an imagined alternative America, one that simultaneously evokes Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” Franklin Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” speech and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” prophecy. It’s an imagined country that much of the world would like to believe really exists beneath the belligerent bravado of Mr. Trump and his MAGA fans.
Mr. Trump’s successful businessman act has almost always been based on smoke, mirrors, his daddy’s millions and, these days, an elaborate, family-enriching crypto scheme. Ditto his career as a television star, which was based on artifice on the one hand, behind the scenes, and performative sadism in front of the camera. Mr. Trump’s political ideology is similarly a sham: exploiting racism, resentment and a need for dominance. Mr. Springsteen is his foil, the counter to his idea that to lift up, one must leave out.
-snip-
Mr. Trump’s deepfake golf ball assault did not deter Mr. Springsteen. On subsequent nights, Mr. Springsteen changed his set list: The show opened with “No Surrender.” He not only repeated the same speeches but also released a live recording from that night of the tour, where he could be heard saying: “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!”
Perhaps Mr. Trump worried that a simple, uncompromised patriotic message on offer from a man who is arguably the nation’s most beloved male rock star would break through to his fans. The appeal of both men is clear. Mr. Trump and Mr. Springsteen were born three years apart and felt, in their way, like they were outsiders. Both are now very wealthy while credibly professing to speak to and for the denizens of America’s working class who live paycheck to paycheck. They reach people who could never in a lifetime earn enough to purchase a membership to Mar-a-Lago (much less buy enough $TRUMP memecoins to have dinner with the president) and may not have been able to see “Springsteen on Broadway” or in concert (where Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing” process sent some of the best tickets of a recent tour into the mid-four-figure range) and still pay that month’s rent. Most important, however, each man embodies a competing vision of the much-maligned American dream.
Raised working class, Mr. Springsteen started out as a punkish prowler of the mean streets of the late-night, low-rent Jersey Shore but has since evolved into an icon who has come to symbolize an imagined alternative America, one that simultaneously evokes Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” Franklin Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” speech and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” prophecy. It’s an imagined country that much of the world would like to believe really exists beneath the belligerent bravado of Mr. Trump and his MAGA fans.
Mr. Trump’s successful businessman act has almost always been based on smoke, mirrors, his daddy’s millions and, these days, an elaborate, family-enriching crypto scheme. Ditto his career as a television star, which was based on artifice on the one hand, behind the scenes, and performative sadism in front of the camera. Mr. Trump’s political ideology is similarly a sham: exploiting racism, resentment and a need for dominance. Mr. Springsteen is his foil, the counter to his idea that to lift up, one must leave out.
-snip-
Mr. Trump’s deepfake golf ball assault did not deter Mr. Springsteen. On subsequent nights, Mr. Springsteen changed his set list: The show opened with “No Surrender.” He not only repeated the same speeches but also released a live recording from that night of the tour, where he could be heard saying: “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!”
And in case you missed hearing about Trump's stupid deepfake golf ball assault: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220332740
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