Based on the reaction to Green Day’s “American Idiot” performance on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, a startling number of people are just now learning what their 2004 anthem is about. Fox Business pundits cartoonishly discussed it at a roundtable, caping up for former President Donald Trump, which earned a sarcastic response from Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello. So, what exactly did Green Day do?
What Did Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong Say About Donald Trump?
To start the second verse, lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong adjusted the “American Idiot” lyrics from “Well, maybe I’m a f*****, America / I’m not part of the redneck agenda” to “Well, maybe I’m a f****t, America / I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda.”
If you have lived in this country for the past decade, you are probably well-aware of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign slogan, standing for “Make America Great Again.” Under the MAGA umbrella, Trump and his supporters pushed anti-immigration, homophobic, sexist, racist, and xenophobic messaging.
This performance is far from the first time Armstrong and Green Day have side-swiped Trump. In August, Green Day placed Trump’s mugshot on their Nimrod cover and printed the image on T-shirts. Actually, Armstrong pulled off the exact same lyric switch at the 2019 iHeartRadio Festival. And well before that, in November 2016, shortly after Trump was elected Armstrong the 45th President Of The United States, Armstrong chanted “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist” during a performance of “Bang Bang” at the American Music Awards (as per Billboard).
Green Day’s forthcoming album, Saviors, covers everything from “Power pop, punk, rock, indie triumph. disease, war, inequality, influencers, yoga retreats, alt right, dating apps, masks, MENTAL HEALTH, climate change, oligarchs, social media division, free weed, fentanyl, fragility,” as the band explained when announcing the album in October. And its arrival is at the beginning of an election year? Buckle up.
Watch Green Day’s “American Idiot” performance above.
Saviors is out 1/19/2024 via Reprise Records. Find more information here.
Green Day is a Warner Music artist. .
