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Rage Against the Machine's guitarist Tom Morello has voiced his support for Bruce Springsteen amid the latter's recent feud with US President Donald Trump. The feud began when Springsteen criticized Trump's government during his May 14 concert at the Co-op Live in Manchester, England.
Morello joined the fray during his performance at a Boston music festival on May 25, 2025, performing in front of a "F**K TRUMP" backdrop. He claimed the event might be the “last big event before they throw us all in jail."
The guitarist, who has performed with Bruce Springsteen many times, claimed the president was "mad" at Springsteen for drawing a bigger crowd than him, saying:
“Bruce is going after Trump because Bruce, his whole life, he’s been about truth, justice, democracy, equality. And Trump is mad at him because Bruce draws a bigger audience. F**k that guy!”
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Morello also took a moment to praise his alma mater, Harvard University, for standing up against the president. Trump had recently targeted the Ivy League institution for refusing to bar foreign students from its campus.
According to The Independent, Morello commended the university for its free online civics course on "how to recognize a dictatorship takeover of your country.”
What did Bruce Springsteen say about Donald Trump?
During his May 14 show at the Co-op Live in Manchester, England, Bruce Springsteen voiced his criticism of the current government and president, dubbing the former "a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration" and the latter an "unfit president." The transcript of the speech, uploaded to the musician's website, read:
"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. Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!"
The singer also claimed that the government had failed the American people, adding that American citizens with a "common set of values" were what stood between "a democracy and authoritarianism." This speech came ahead of his performance of House of a Thousand Guitars.
Before performing his song My City of Ruins, Bruce Springsteen also addressed ICE deportations and Trump's conflict with Harvard University over foreign students, saying:
"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."
He 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 for what it means to be deeply American."
Bruce Springsteen, aged 75, had been critical of Trump for years, endorsing Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential elections.
Donald Trump calls for an investigation into Bruce Springsteen and other musicians for an alleged “illegal campaign contribution”
Following Bruce Springsteen's speech, Donald Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, on May 16 to verbally attack the musician, calling him "overrated" and a "dried out prune of a rocker" in a series of posts.
"I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States. Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he's not a talented guy - Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country," he wrote in one post.
On May 19, Trump called for an investigation into singers such as Bruce Springsteen, Bono, and Beyoncé for an alleged “illegal campaign contribution,” claiming Kamala Harris offered them money to endorse her.
According to the Independent, there is no evidence to back Trump's claim that Harris paid the artists to endorse her during her 2024 presidential campaign as of this article.
