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‘My job is very simple: I do what I want to do, I say what I want to say’
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Published Mar 30, 2026 • Last updated 3 hours ago • 5 minute read
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Bruce Springsteen, left, and Donald Trump are seen in this combination file photo. Photo by Getty ImagesArticle content
Bruce Springsteen isn’t concerned that his constant criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump has cost him some of his most loyal fans.
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Earlier this year, Springsteen announced he was launching the 20-date Land of Hope and Dreams Tour, which came in the wake of his protest song Streets of Minneapolis that he released after U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed in Minneapolis by ICE agents.
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“Through the winter’s ice and cold / Down Nicollet Avenue / A city aflame fought fire and ice / ‘Neath an occupier’s boots,” Springsteen sings on the track. “Two dead left to die on snow-filled streets / Alex Pretti and Renee Good.”
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Appearing onstage at the Light of Day Winterfest in Red Bank, N.J., in January, Springsteen said the U.S. is “living through incredibly critical times.”
“The United States, the ideals and the values for which it stood for the past 250 years is being tested as it has never been in modern times,” he said in video that was shared to social media by Fox News. “If you believe in the power of the law and that no one stands above it, if you stand against heavily armed mass 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.”
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In announcing the tour, he told fans “the cavalry is coming.”
“Brothers and sisters, fans, friends and good folks from coast to coast, we are living through dark, disturbing and dangerous times. But do not despair … We will be rocking your town in celebration and in defense of America, American democracy, American freedom, our American constitution and our sacred American dream,” said Springsteen. “All of which are under attack by our wannabe king and his rogue government in Washington, D.C. Everyone, regardless of where you stand or what you believe in, is welcome. So come out and join the United Free Republic of E Street nation for an American spring of rock and rebellion. See you there.”
Springsteen tour will be ‘very topical’
Ahead of the tour kickoff Tuesday in Minneapolis, Springsteen told the Minnesota Star Tribune that the trek is “going to be political and very topical about what’s going on in the country.”
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“Minneapolis and St. Paul, that was the place I wanted to begin it, and I wanted to end it in Washington,” he told the outlet (per Variety). “The E Street Band is built for hard times. It always was. These are the moments when I think we can be of real value and real worth to the community. These are moments that fill the band with purpose, so I try to fill the set list around those ideas.”
Springsteen also said he wasn’t losing sleep over the prospect that some of his fans who voted for Trump have lost interest in his music.
“I don’t worry about it,” he said. “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. Those are the rules of my game. That’s fine with me. I don’t worry about if you’re going to lose this part of your audience. I’ve always had a feeling about the position we play culturally, and I’m still deeply committed to that idea of the band. The blowback is just part of it. I’m ready for all that.”
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No Kings rally performance
Springsteen also performed at a No Kings rally in Minnesota over the weekend.
“This past winter, federal troops brought death and terror to the streets of Minneapolis. Well, they picked the wrong city,” the singer-songwriter said on stage, according to USA Today. “The power and the solidarity of the people of Minneapolis, of Minnesota, was an inspiration to the entire country.”
He continued by referencing ICE arrests that are happening across the U.S., telling the crowd, “these invasions of American cities will not stand.”
Springsteen also said Good and Pretti’s names “will not be forgotten.”
Trump White House reacts to ‘loser’ Springsteen
After Springsteen announced the Land of Hope and Dreams roadshow, White House communications director Steven Cheung panned the Boss by referencing some of the New Jersey native’s own discography.
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“When this loser Springsteen comes back home to his own City of Ruins in his head, he’ll realize his Glory Days are behind him and his fans have left him Out in the Street, putting him in a Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out because he has a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his brain,” Cheung told Politico.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, also dismissed Springsteen’s rants, saying no one cared about the musician’s “bad political opinions.”
“If he actually believed in the power of the law, he would understand that criminal illegal aliens should be deported, that impeding federal law enforcement operations is a crime and that officers have a right to act in self-defence if an individual is using their car as a deadly weapon,” Jackson said in a statement shared with the New York Times.
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Last year, after Springsteen called the president “unfit” for office and unaware of “what it means to be deeply American,” Trump fired back in a Truth Social post in which he called the 20-time Grammy winner “a pushy, obnoxious JERK” and “a dried out prune.”
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