Between Donald Trump and Bruce Springsteen, the Boss War is declared
On tour in Europe—he's performing in Marseille this Saturday, May 31—the famous American rocker doesn't mince his words against the White House tenant and the damage caused by his administration. A militant message that earned him the ire of Donald Trump. Through these two men of the same generation, two visions of America clash, analyzes The New York Times.
Since the 1980s, Bruce Springsteen has championed in his songs a plural and fantasized vision of the United States and American identity. A sort of revisited version of [President Roosevelt's] New Deal, which affirms the dignity and pride of honest work, and the importance of respecting our differences, whether cultural, ethnic, or gender. This collective approach could be summed up in a single sentence, with which Springsteen has long concluded his concerts:
“Nobody wins unless everyone wins.”
And in the singer's mouth, "everyone" really means "everyone"—illegal immigrants and border patrol agents, single mothers and absent fathers, Black victims of police brutality and the officers who shoot them (and regret it), traumatized Vietnam veterans and Southeast Asian refugees trying to find their place in the United States.
But the 1980s also saw the emergence of another image of America, eager to destroy the vestiges of the New Deal, and whose archetype was none other than a certain Donald Trump, a flashy real estate developer and darling of tabloid magazines. An approach whose central idea could be summed up as follows:
“I only win if everyone else loses.”
Donald Trump has since moved into the White House, and is now seething with petty anger at Bruce Springsteen, who dared to criticize him on the first night of his European tour [May 14, in Manchester].
Nothing angers Donald Trump more than seeing another celebrity disrespect him. But this case goes beyond that. The 75-year-old singer and the 78-year-old president embody, in many ways, two opposing visions of modern America. They offer their fans the prospect of radically different futures.
Where Donald Trump's presidential campaign sought to make America (or at least his vision of America) great again, Bruce Springsteen's "Land of Hope and Dreams" tour [literally: “Land of hope and dreams”], defends another, more generous face of the United States.
The lyrics of the eponymous song thus offer an idealistic vision of integration, in a train where “saints and sinners” mingle.
The New York Times (New York)With 1,700 journalists, some 30 foreign bureaus, more than 130 Pulitzer Prize winners, and more than 11 million subscribers in total by the end of 2024, The New York Times is the leading daily newspaper in the United States, where one can read “all the news that's fit to print.”
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As for the web edition, which alone boasts more than 10 million subscribers by the end of 2024, it offers everything one would expect from an online service, plus dozens of dedicated sections. The archives include articles published since 1851, which can be viewed online from 1981.
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