Bruce Springsteen spent part of the opening night of his tour calling out President Donald Trump.
“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock and roll, in dangerous times,” the Boss told the Manchester, England, crowd from the Co-Op Live stage in the first few moments of the show. “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. 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.”
See him speak in footage captured by a concertgoer.
Wow #BruceSpringsteen Bruce Springsteen just battered Trump unbelievable moment at start of Manchester tour pic.twitter.com/JYfL4G5KQE
— DORTIE (@TonyDortie) May 14, 2025
Springsteen returned to the subject deeper into his set.
“In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death,” he said before singing the 2002 song “My City of Ruins,” per Billboard. “And 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.”
Springsteen’s long been opposed to Trump. Last October, he endorsed Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris, over Trump for president. He also called him “the most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime.”
“Perhaps not since the Civil War has this great country felt as politically, spiritually, and emotionally divided as it does than at this moment,” he added. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
The artist behind songs such as “Born in the U.S.A,” “The River,” and “My Hometown” said he was standing behind the Democratic candidates for president and vice president, because their policies mirror the “vision of America [he’s] been consistently writing about for 55 years.”
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In June 2020, he told the Atlantic “I don’t know if our democracy could stand another four years of his custodianship.”
The 20-time Grammy winner will have many more chances to take the mic this summer, as his “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour is scheduled to continue throughout Europe over the next two months.
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