The following is one of my favorite true stories.
In the mid-1970s, my mom lived in New York City. One day, she went to a free concert in Central Park. The headliner was Janis Ian, famous for penning the prescription sleep aid “At Seventeen.” The opening act, meanwhile, was some young up-and-comer by the name of Bruce Springsteen.
This was during a small window when Springsteen and The E Street Band were critically acclaimed but hadn’t yet achieved breakthrough success; “Born to Run” hadn’t come out yet. But when the audience heard Springsteen, they lost their minds. After he finished his set, they demanded an encore, and then another. Finally, Springsteen left the stage and Janis Ian came out.
According to my mom, the crowd started booing Ian as soon as she started singing. Mind you, this was a crowd of people who presumably came there to see Janis Ian. Alas, she was no match for The Boss, and she left the stage after the audience drowned out her second song, at which point Springsteen came back and played another set.
I can’t exactly call myself a Springsteen fan — not enough songs about alien abductions and evil wizards for my tastes — but I respect him. I would argue that Bruce Springsteen is just about the most uniquely American musician since Woody Guthrie. He’s a man who came from humble beginnings and rose to the highest levels of fame based on talent and grit. His songs celebrate the American people while criticizing the American institutions that fail them (“Born in the U.S.A.” is the most misunderstood song since “This Land Is Your Land”). Bruce Springsteen is so powerfully American that when he wore bluejeans, he made BLUEJEANS more American.
All of this leads us to a May 14 Springsteen concert in Manchester, England. During the concert, Springsteen said that President Donald Trump’s Administration was “corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous.”
“Raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring,” he added.
Over the next few days, Trump decided to refute these allegations of being a corrupt authoritarian by taking to social media and infringing upon the First Amendment rights of a private citizen.
First off, he said that Springsteen was “not … a talented guy,” and then called him out for being a “dried out prune of a rocker” with “atrophied” skin.
I get that these are pretty standard-issue Trump insults, although I’d be careful about calling someone a dried-out prune if they were three years younger than me and also looked like Bruce Springsteen.
However, the real fun began at 1:34 a.m. Monday morning when Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he was demanding an investigation into Springsteen, Beyonce, Oprah, and Bono.
“HOW MUCH DID KAMALA HARRIS PAY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FOR HIS POOR PERFORMANCE DURING HER CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT?” Trump wrote. “WHY DID HE ACCEPT THAT MONEY IF HE IS SUCH A FAN OF HERS? ISN’T THAT A MAJOR AND ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION?”
I can at least answer that last part: no. Candidates can pay for endorsements as long as they disclose said payment in their campaign finance reports. And if the Harris campaign failed to disclose those payments, the wrongdoing would be on the side of her campaign, not the artist. But let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good old-fashioned early morning all-caps rage tweet.
Trump went on to say that celebrities who endorsed Harris were just brought in to build up her sparse crowds, and there needs to be an investigation, and it’s all illegal, and so forth and so on.
First off, I’m sure Trump does not have similar concerns about the big name celebrities that endorsed him, like Kid Rock and Scott Baio and Hulk Hogan. I’m sure the Trump campaign compensated those guys, possibly in the form of bus fare.
Most importantly, however, this is a clear-cut example of the government harassing a private citizen for using his free speech to criticize the government. This is literally a violation of Springsteen’s rights as guaranteed by the First Amendment. Threatening to investigate any dissenters who fail to pay sufficient fealty to the Leader is the kind of thing they do in North Korea. It has no place in a functioning democracy.
Of course, this isn’t Springsteen’s first run-in with Trump. Back in 2016, his people sent Trump a cease-and-desist letter for playing “Born in the U.S.A.” at a campaign rally, just as they sent a cease-and-desist to Ronald Reagan for doing the same thing back in 1984. It almost seems as though Trump liked Springsteen up until Springsteen made it clear he had no interest in touching the hem of Trump’s garment.
But that is always the way with Trump: his biggest motivating desire is the need to be loved. He wants to be worshipped by all and recognized as the best at everything, the smartest on every topic, America’s most special boy. It drives him mad that his only celebrity endorsements come from washed-up has-beens and never-weres.
It would almost be funny if the Constitution weren’t on the line.
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