Despite a threat from Donald Trump to shut his mouth — or else, Bruce Springsteen stood his ground, unleashing another blistering critique of the president and his administration during a concert in Manchester, England, on Saturday night.
The New Jersey rocker echoed many of the same sentiments delivered during the kick-off of The E Street Band’s “Land of Hope and Dreams Tour” earlier this week. “In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, and has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration,” Springsteen proclaimed. “Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against the authoritarianism, and let freedom ring!”
Before performing “My City of Ruins,” Springsteen also repeated a speech first given during the tour’s opening night in which he blasted the administration’s attack on free speech and other constitutional rights. “In America, they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent,” he noted. “In my country, they are taking sadistic pleasure in the pain that they inflict on loyal American workers, they are rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just and moral society. They are abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom.They are defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands. They are removing residents off American streets and without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons. This is all happening now.”
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After first hearing of Springsteen’s criticism, Trump issued a not so subtle threat via his social media platform Truth Social, advising the musician to “KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country… Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”
It seems The Boss is unbothered by the president’s threats.
UPDATE: Bruce didn’t keep his mouth shutpic.twitter.com/o4GEVceZK7
— CONSEQUENCE (@consequence) May 18, 2025