President Donald Trump has responded to Bruce Springsteen’s recent onstage criticism, calling the Boss a “dried out prune of a rocker” and making thinly veiled threats to impede his re-entry into the United States.
The war of words started on Wednesday during Springsteen’s tour kickoff in Manchester, England, when the E Street Band leader opened his show with a scathing rebuke of the Trump administration.
“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock and roll in dangerous times,” Springsteen declared. “In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration. Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring.”
READ MORE: The Best Song From Every Bruce Springsteen Album
Trump, unsurprisingly, didn’t take kindly to that.
Trump Tells Springsteen to ‘Keep His Mouth Shut Until He Gets Back Into the Country’
The president responded to Springsteen on Friday morning in a Truth Social post featuring his typically bewildering syntax and capitalization, which you can see below.
“I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States,” Trump wrote. “Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country. If I wasn’t elected, it would have been GONE by now! Sleepy Joe didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing, but Springsteen is ‘dumb as a rock,’ and couldn’t see what was going on, or could he (which is even worse!)?”
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Trump ended his post with a threat. “This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”
Springsteen’s Land of Hope and Dreams European tour is scheduled to end on July 3 in Milan, Italy. If history is any indication, Trump will likely have a new ax to grind by the time the Boss returns to the United States.
Bruce Springsteen Albums Ranked
From scrappy Dylan disciple to one of the leading singer-songwriters of his generation, the Boss’ catalog includes both big and small statements of purpose.
Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
