President Donald Trump unloaded on Bruce Springsteen Thursday in a Truth Social post, calling the 76-year-old rocker a "total loser" and urging MAGA supporters to boycott his new concert tour. The broadside came days after Springsteen launched his "Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour" in Minneapolis with an explicit promise that the shows would be politically charged.
Trump did not mince words.
"Bad, and very boring singer, Bruce Springsteen, who looks like a dried up prune who has suffered greatly from the work of a really bad plastic surgeon, has long had a horrible and incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, sometimes referred to as TDS."
The president went on to cite his election mandate, noting he won the popular vote, all seven swing states, and 86% of the counties across America. He contrasted the current state of affairs with what he described as a country that "was DEAD" under former President Joe Biden and Democrats, writing that America now has "the 'hottest' Country, by far, anywhere in the World."
His closing directive was blunt: "MAGA SHOULD BOYCOTT HIS OVERPRICED CONCERTS, WHICH SUCK. SAVE YOUR HARD-EARNED MONEY."
To his credit, Springsteen didn't pretend this tour was about nostalgia. Fox News reported that he told the Minnesota Star Tribune before launching the tour that the concerts would be "political and very topical about what's going on in the country." He chose Minneapolis as his starting city deliberately, saying he wanted to begin there and "end it in Washington."
The rocker said he wasn't worried about losing fans or facing criticism.
"My job is very simple: I do what I want to do, I say what I want to say and then people get to say what they want to say about it."
He followed that with a line that reads like a man who knew exactly which hornets' nest he was kicking: "The blowback is just part of it. I'm ready for all that."
Well, the blowback arrived. And it arrived from the most powerful platform in American politics.
Here's where Springsteen's narrative starts to fracture. The man who built a career singing about factory towns, shuttered steel mills, and the dignity of ordinary Americans is now charging prices that those same Americans apparently can't afford.
His own fans are telling him so. One fan wrote online that "no one can afford to actually go." Another was more pointed:
"It's so sad for anyone that's a huge fan of yours and wants so very badly to see you in concert @springsteen but just can't afford these ticket prices!"
That same fan added a line that should sting anyone who claims to speak for the working class:
"Especially now when the economy is so bad. I thought that you if anyone would really understand what I'm saying because you yourself talk about making this world more affordable to live in."
There's a special kind of irony when a multimillionaire lectures the country about compassion and justice from a stage that his own audience can't afford to reach. Springsteen has every right to charge whatever he wants. But the gap between the sermon and the ticket price tells its own story.
During his Tuesday night concert, Springsteen took things further. According to Deadline, he called the current administration "corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless, and treasonous." He described America as a country whose role as "a beacon of hope and liberty around the world" was under threat.
Strong words. Also familiar ones. This is the same script that every celebrity who still thinks it's 2017 reads from: America is in crisis, the administration is illegitimate in spirit if not in law, and only the enlightened class of entertainers can see it clearly.
Springsteen wrote "Streets of Minneapolis" in January, reportedly inspired by the fatal ICE shootings involving Americans Renee Good and Alex Pretti. He said he wanted the tour to reflect where the country stands right now. That's a creative choice he's entitled to make. But wrapping political activism in a concert tour and then charging premium prices for the privilege of hearing it doesn't scream solidarity with the common man. It screams industry.
Springsteen said he remains "deeply committed" to the cultural position his band occupies. That commitment, though, increasingly looks like it's aimed at a very specific audience: affluent liberals who want their politics validated between guitar solos.
The working-class Americans Springsteen once wrote anthems for voted overwhelmingly for Trump. They filled rallies. They delivered the landslide. And now they're being told by a man worth hundreds of millions of dollars that their chosen leader is "treasonous."
Springsteen can say whatever he wants. He said so himself, and he's right. Those are the rules. But Trump can respond, and his supporters can spend their money elsewhere. Those are the rules, too.
The Boss wanted a political tour. He got a political response.
