The president’s threats against Bruce Springsteen are not a joke.
In a post on Truth Social early Monday, Donald Trump said he would be directing the federal government to conduct a “major investigation” into how much money Kamala Harris paid celebrity musicians to endorse her during her 2024 campaign, including the likes of Springsteen, Beyoncé, and U2’s Bono.
One day later, the late-night post appeared less like a stray arrow and more like an administrative agenda.
“Accountability for a class of people who act as if they’re above the law may be uncomfortable for Rolling Stone, but it’s refreshing to the American people,” Trump White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told Rolling Stone Tuesday.
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But Trump’s assertion that Harris paid for endorsements isn’t correct. Harris’s campaign was roundly scrutinized for cashing big checks to celebrity production companies, including $165,000 to Beyoncé’s Parkwood Production Media LLC on November 19 and $1 million to Oprah’s Harpo Productions for services that they provided during her campaign. Harpo provided the stage and staff during her livestreamed Detroit town hall, while Beyoncé was paid for “campaign event production,” according to FEC records, weeks after she made a guest appearance at the Democratic presidential nominee’s Houston rally in October. (On Monday, Trump claimed without citation that Beyonce had received $11 million to walk on stage and endorse Harris without performing.)
Springsteen’s production company, meanwhile, received $76,000 from the Harris campaign after he performed as a musical guest at Harris’s Georgia rally in October.
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The president’s decision to hone in on campaign finance corruption, per those who have spoken to him in recent months, boils down to one word: revenge. Despite skirting consequences by winning the presidency, Trump has seemingly not gotten over the fact that he is the first U.S. president convicted as a felon (and the first convicted felon to become president). Trump was convicted last year on charges related to campaign finance fraud for issuing hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election.
“Democrats pretended to care about campaign finance violations when they persecuted President Trump with their lawfare,” Mike Davis, a conservative lawyer close to Trump who is a key player of the MAGA legal elite, told Rolling Stone. “Maybe they shouldn’t have thrown stones in glass houses. Nobody is above the law.”
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“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,” Springsteen said Wednesday. “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.”
That sparked Trump’s multi-day tirade against The Boss, writing on Truth Social that the singer of one of his favorite campaign tracks was actually “highly overrated.”
“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,” Trump posted after clips of Springsteen’s remarks went viral. “If I wasn’t elected, it would have been GONE by now!”
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In response, Springsteen spoke out again on Saturday, telling another stadium crowd in Manchester that Trump was “unfit” to be president.
“Things are happening right now that are altering the very nature of our country’s democracy, and they’re too important to ignore,” he said.
* Original Article:
https://newrepublic.com/post/195508/donald-trump-plans-target-bruce-springsteen