Donald Trump accuses Bruce Springsteen of 'betrayal'
Donald Trump has accused the singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen of betraying his "working class persona" by backing Vice President Kamala Harris.
In a statement released on his website ahead of Springsteen attending a Harris-Walz campaign event in Georgia on October 24, the former president said Springsteen's appearance was part of a "desperate, last-ditch effort to salvage her spiraling campaign."
Speaking of Springsteen's endorsement of Harris, the statement read, "It's a betrayal of his wannabe working class persona."
Springsteen joined former president Barack Obama at Harris' rally in Clarkston and sang an acoustic cover of his song "The Promised Land," as well as "Land of Hope and Dreams," and "Dancing' In the Dark."
The singer-songwriter spoke to the crowd and said that his reason for supporting Harris and Tim Walz is that he wants "a president who reveres the Constitution, who does not threaten, but wants to protect and guide our great democracy, who believes in the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power, who will fight for a woman's right to choose, and who wants to create a middle-class economy that will serve all our citizens."
Springsteen added that while Harris is "running to be the 47th president of the United States" Donald Trump is "running to be an American tyrant."
Others who attended the rally included film director Spike Lee, actor Samuel L. Jackson, and actor Tyler Perry.
In Trump's statement ahead of the event, he also took aim at an endorsement video from Springsteen posted on Instagram on October 3.
In the clip, Springsteen said Trump is "dangerous" and "doesn't understand the meaning of this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American,"
In response, Trump's statement read, "That's news to the people with whom Springsteen grew up — and the working class Americans so often portrayed in his music. A majority of voters in Monmouth County, New Jersey — where Springsteen was born, raised, and still resides — supported President Trump in 2020. In his current hometown of Colts Neck, New Jersey, voters backed President Trump by a two-to-one margin."
New Jersey is a reliably Democrat state, and Joe Biden won 57 percent of the vote in 2020. However in Monmouth County, Trump received 191,808 votes, beating Joe Biden who received 181,291, according to county records. In Colts Neck, Trump received 4,451 votes, almost double Biden's 2,309.
Newsweek reached out to Springsteen's publicity agency for comment via email outside of business hours.
The statement also said that, "Democrats have gotten rich as they sold out American workers through unfair trade, environmental obsessions, and an embrace of illegal immigration that has killed jobs and raised prices."
Harris has previously criticized Trump's work for working class voters, and at a rally in Michigan, she said, "Here's the bottom line. Donald Trump's track record is a disaster for working people, and he is an existential threat to America's labor movement," according to the New York Times.
Harris currently has canvassers in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin focused on mobilizing working-class voters.
Newsweek reached out to a spokesperson for Harris and the Trump campaign for comment via email outside of business hours.
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