{"id":89508,"date":"2025-08-22T20:14:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T20:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/89508\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T20:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T20:14:07","slug":"jack-whites-response-to-donald-trump-speaks-truth-to-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/89508\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack White’s Response to Donald Trump Speaks Truth to Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBefore he was an outspoken critic<\/a> of Trump, before he was even a musician, Jack White<\/a> was an upholsterer. Growing up in Detroit, he began as an apprentice at just 15 years old, then opened his own shop, Third Man Upholstery, when he was 21. His music career took off a year later, when he formed the White Stripes with his then-wife, Meg White. But he never stopped working on furniture, even teaching us how to reupholster a stool in his 2014 Rolling Stone cover story<\/a>. You know, normal rock star stuff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s an obvious overlap between White\u2019s music and his interior design business that goes well beyond sharing the same name. (His label is called Third Man Records, but getting into his lifelong love of the number three requires a separate essay). You\u2019ll never come across a better-dressed indie rocker, and he famously follows a strict color scheme \u2014 red for White Stripes, yellow for Third Man, and blue for his solo work, with black appearing across all. He\u2019s as serious about vintage and historical artifacts as he is about reissuing and preserving<\/a> music. In every aspect of his life, Jack White brings unapologetic intentionality.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn carpentry and interior design, being in Jack\u2019s presence during the ideation process, the hypotheticals and head tilting, can be both inspiring and maddening,\u201d his nephew and business partner, Ben Blackwell, writes<\/a> on White\u2019s art and design website. \u201cThere\u2019s no reason a building needs to have acoustical tiles, tin ceilings or shiny yellow floors. But that\u2019s not the point. The point is to make something beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo it makes sense that Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s redecoration of the White House, in a style that is far from beautiful, irked White this month. The musician posted<\/a> a photo of Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, comparing the makeover to \u201ca vulgar, gold leafed and gaudy, professional wrestler\u2019s dressing room.\u201d He took a moment to shout out \u201cREAL leader of a nation\u201d Zelensky and his sleek black suit, but otherwise said the entire thing was surely \u201can embarrassment to American history.\u201d The lengthy, merciless caption is basically the rock equivalent of Miranda Priestly\u2019s cerulean sweater takedown<\/a>. Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tBut it gets even better. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung actually responded<\/a> to White, attempting to dismiss him as \u201ca washed up, has-been loser posting drivel on social media because he clearly has ample time on his hands due to his stalled career. It\u2019s apparent he\u2019s been masquerading as a real artist, because he fails to appreciate, and quite frankly disrespects, the splendor and significance of the Oval Office inside of \u2018The People\u2019s House.\u2019\u201d Ouch.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhite doubled down and then some, replying with a fiery 750-word roast<\/a> that immediately pointed out the dark humor of it all: The fact White has been publicly<\/a> condemning<\/a> Trump for years, yet the one time the president responds, it\u2019s because White called him tacky. In the past, White has lambasted celebrities who\u2019ve \u201cnormalized<\/a>\u201d Trump. He quit Twitter<\/a>, and, alongside Meg, even sued<\/a> Trump for using \u201cSeven Nation Army\u201d in a campaign video (they dropped<\/a> the lawsuit last fall).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHe detailed his many previous attacks on Trump\u2019s awful policies \u2014 his \u201cblatant fascist manipulation of government,\u201d his \u201cgestapo ICE tactics,\u201d his \u201cdisparaging sexist and pedophilic remarks about women,\u201d his \u201cignorance of the dying children in Sudan, Gaza, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo,\u201d his \u201cconstant, constant, constant lying to the American people,\u201d and much more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt wasn\u2019t me calling out any of that,\u201d White said. \u201cIt was the fucking DECOR OF THE OVAL OFFICE remarks I made that got them to respond with insults. How petty and pathetic and thin-skinned could this administration get? \u2018Masquerading as a real artist\u2019? Thank you for giving me my tombstone engraving!\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tIt\u2019s important to take Cheung\u2019s statement with a grain of salt. After all, it\u2019s on behalf of a politician who recently described<\/a> Bruce Springsteen as a \u201cdried out prune of a rocker\u201d and proclaimed<\/a> to the world that Taylor Swift is no longer hot<\/a>. But his other kind words for White and his \u201cstalled career\u201d aren\u2019t just comical, they\u2019re plain wrong. This is a guy who\u2019s been in the music industry for nearly 30 years, with 12 Grammys under his belt, and the author of a riff that\u2019s become a stadium chant in sporting events across the world. He\u2019s about to get inducted<\/a> into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this fall. Olivia Rodrigo cried<\/a> when she met him. Bob Dylan taught him how to weld. Beyonc\u00e9 sent<\/a> him flowers. His most recent release, 2024\u2019s killer No Name<\/a> LP, got some of his best reviews ever. Most musicians would kill for a career that stalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tWhite has rarely been known as an overtly political artist \u2014 his first time publicly endorsing a presidential candidate was Bernie Sanders<\/a> in 2020 \u2014 and he says in his post that he\u2019s not a registered Democrat. But he\u2019s never been one to stay quiet, either, especially early in his career, when he famously feuded<\/a> with fellow musicians, particularly<\/a> the Black Keys. \u201cI think a lot of emotions have been demonized over the years,\u201d he told us in 2018<\/a>, \u201cAs if they should never exist on planet Earth. Absolutely not. Without revenge and anger and these quote-unquote negative emotions, how would we have won World War II?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRight now, White\u2019s \u201cnegative emotions\u201d are winning. He\u2019s speaking truth to power and getting under the president\u2019s skin, and his punches are landing. He just turned 50 last month (and was possibly the only human ever to be gifted both a 1991 Suzuki Samurai<\/a> and his first-ever cell phone<\/a>). He\u2019s no longer worried about watered-down versions<\/a> of the White Stripes. He\u2019s got bigger issues on his mind. And we should listen to him now, more than ever.<\/p>\n