During the opening concert of his Land of Hope & Dreams European tour, Bruce Springsteen ignited the Manchester audience with a speech in which he harshly criticized Donald Trump and his administration.
“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock n’ roll in dangerous times,” said the Boss before the fans, ““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 spirit to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism.”
“The last check on power, after the checks and balances of government have failed, are the people”, Springsteen added during the concert, “In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. n my country, they are taking sadistic pleasure in the pain that they inflict on loyal American workers, they’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just and plural society”.
Speaking about the work of the Trump government, the U.S. rock star then explained: “They’re abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom. They’re defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands. They’re removing residents off American streets, and without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons.”
Springsteen also criticized U.S. lawmakers for failing to protect the American people from what he called “an unfit president and a rogue government” and for having “no concern or idea of what it means to be deeply American.”
“The America that I’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real and, regardless of its faults, is a great country with a great people, so will survive this moment,” he concluded.
The Boss’s words come only a few days after those of Robert De Niro, who said at Cannes film festival: “In my country, we are fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted. That affects all of us here, because the arts are democratic, art is inclusive and brings people together, like tonight. Art looks for truth. Art embraces diversity, and that’s why art is a threat. That’s why we are a threat to autocrats and fascists”.
