Bruce Springsteen used a Saturday concert to decry what he called the “Gestapo tactics” of the Trump administration’s surge of immigration officers and said the country’s founding values “have never been as endangered as they are right now”.
While performing in his home state of New Jersey, Springsteen dedicated his 1978 song The Promised Land to Renee Good, the 37-year-old woman who was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Minnesota.
Springsteen told the crowd, which loudly cheered his remarks: “If you believe in democracy, in liberty, if you believe truth still matters, and it’s worth speaking out, and it’s worth fighting for; if you believe in the power of the law and that no one stands above it; if you stand against heavily armed masked federal troops invading an American city, using Gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens; if you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest, then send a message to this president. As the mayor of that city has said: ICE should get the fuck out of Minneapolis.”
Springsteen, who has condemned Donald Trump’s actions before, said the song was about “both the beautiful but flawed country that we are, and to the country that we could be”.
“This song is for you, and in the memory of a mother of three and an American citizen, Renee Good,” he added.
The musician, whose lyrics have been praised for depicting the struggles and triumphs of working-class Americans, had already criticized Trump’s authoritarian leanings.
At a show in May in the UK he said: “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 led to a more just and plural society. They are abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom.”
Trump has responded to Springsteen’s remarks by calling the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member “highly overrated”, “not a talented guy” and a “pushy, obnoxious jerk”.
