Legendary Canadian rocker Neil Young debuted a new song this week, titled Big Crime, which not-so-subtly takes aim at U.S. President Donald Trump.
Young played the new track criticizing the Trump administration at his show in Chicago with his band The Chrome Hearts on Wednesday, and later posted the song’s lyrics on his Neil Young Archives website.
“There’s big crime in D.C. at the White House,” the 79-year-old rock icon sings in the chorus. Other lyrics aimed at Trump but not mentioning the president by name include “don’t need no fascist rules, don’t want no fascist schools, don’t want no soldiers walking on the streets.”
“Got to get the fascists out, got to clean the White House out, don’t want soldiers on our streets,” Young sings.
He also takes Trump’s signature slogan, “Make America Great Again,” and repeats throughout the song, “No more great again.”
Young’s new song makes reference to Trump sending thousands of National Guard troops and federal law enforcement officials into Washington in a bid to fight the violent crime he claimed had strangled the city. Last week, Trump said he wants US$2 billion from Congress to beautify Washington as part of his crackdown on the city.
The development in Trump’s effort to override the law enforcement authority of state and local governments comes as he is considering expanding the deployments to other Democratic-led cities, including Baltimore, Chicago and New York.
Young, who is a Canadian-American dual citizen, has directly criticized Trump in the past. In May, he told Trump to stop “worrying” about what Bruce Springsteen and other celebrities think of him.
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In a post on his website, Young told Trump he should focus on “saving America from the mess you made” instead of arguing with celebrities who have criticized him, like his recent feud with Springsteen.
“What are you worryin’ about man?” Young wrote in the post. “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.”
Young added that Taylor Swift “is right” and “so is Bruce.” (Swift was a subject of one of Trump’s Truth Social posts in May. He wrote: “Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?’”)
“You know how I feel. You are more worried about yourself than AMERICA,” Young added. “Wake up Trump!! Remember what the White House is?”
“You are forgetting your real job. You work for us. Wake up Republicans! This guy is out of control. We need a real president,” Young concluded his post.
Young’s post came after Trump escalated his feud with Springsteen, calling for a “major investigation” into the rock legend after Springsteen branded the Trump administration as “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous” during a concert in England.
In early April, the Harvest Moon singer voiced concern that he may not be allowed to re-enter the United States after his European tour due to his criticism of Trump.
Young spoke out about his fears in a post on his Neil Young Archives website.
“When I go to play music in Europe, if I talk about Donald J. Trump, I may be one of those returning to America who is barred or put in jail to sleep on a cement floor with an aluminum blanket,” the folk-rock icon wrote.
“If I come back from Europe and am barred, can’t play my USA tour, all of the folks who bought tickets will not be able to come to a concert by me,” he added. “That’s right folks, if you say anything bad about Trump or his administration, you may be barred from re-entering USA. If you are Canadian. If you are a dual citizen like me, who knows? We’ll all find that out together.”
As Young has done many times in the past, he did not hold back about his feelings on Trump in his post, writing, “If the fact that I think Donald Trump is the worst president in the history of our great country could stop me from coming back, what does that say for Freedom? I love America and its people and its music and its culture.… Remember Freedom of Speech?”
— With files from Global News and The Associated Press
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