Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band began their “Land of Hope & Dreams” tour with forceful messages about the “treasonous” Trump administration.
In Manchester, England, Springsteen summoned the “righteous power of art, of music, of rock ‘n’ roll in dangerous times.”
“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,” he told the crowd before performing the tour’s namesake song.
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“Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!”
Springsteen, a vocal opponent of both Trump administrations who performed at a rally for Kamala Harris last year, had a similar message later in the show.
“The last check on power after the checks and balances of government have failed are the people, you and me,” he said. “It’s in the union of people around a common set of values now that’s all that stands between a democracy and authoritarianism. At the end of the day, all we’ve really got is each other.”
Springsteen’s lengthiest comments on the Trump administration occurred before the 2002 track “My City of Ruins.”
“There’s some very weird, strange, and dangerous s--t going on out there right now. In America they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now,” he said.
“In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death,” he went on.
“In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain that they inflict on loyal American workers. They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just and plural society. They’re abandoning our great allies, and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom. They’re defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands. They’re 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.”
Springsteen continued: “A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government. They have no concern or idea of what it means to be deeply American.”
“The America that l’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real, and, regardless of its faults, is a great country with a great people,” he concluded. “So we’ll survive this moment. Now, I have hope, because I believe in the truth of what the great American writer James Baldwin said. He said, “In this world there isn’t as much humanity as one would like, but there’s enough.’ Let’s pray.”
Springsteen and company haven’t had a tour date in the U.S. after the presidential election, as they wrapped up their North American leg with several shows in Canada in November.
After Wednesday’s show, the band is scheduled to make their way through Europe, ending in Milan in early July.
