Neil Young finds himself in the headlines once again after calling out president Donald Trump for his brazen attempt at quelling Bruce Springsteen’s free speech. The folk rock legend took to his website to release the following statement: “Bruce and thousands of musicians think you are ruining America. You worry about that instead of the dyin’ kids in Gaza. That’s your problem. I am not scared of you. Neither are the rest of us. You shut down FEMA when we needed it most. That’s your problem Trump. STOP THINKING ABOUT WHAT ROCKERS ARE SAYING. Think about saving America from the mess you made.”
This is a bold statement from an artist who has built his career on bold statements but it comes after the sitting US president took time out of a rally in the middle of an unprecedented economic crisis to throw random disses at longtime working class hero, Bruce Springsteen. This is not the first time Trump has spent more time embroiled in celebrity drama than fulfilling his role in the most important job in America as he recently claimed he was responsible for Taylor Swift “no longer [being] hot” (she’s currently the tenth most listened to artist in the world on Spotify) Perhaps, the president should pay more attention to tensions between The US and China and the global ocean temperatures when he’s sitting in The Lincoln Bedroom making hot or not lists.
As NME astutely notes in their coverage Neil Young likely has a stake in this outside of his well known political stances because if Trump is threatening US citizen Bruce Springsteen with an unconstitutional exile for speaking out against the administration Canadian Neil Young could face a very real threat of deportation with Trump at the helm.
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