'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Rock band Green Day has garnered immense backlash online after seemingly criticizing Donald Trump during a New Year’s Eve performance. The on-stage diss comes in light of the former president being investigated for his efforts to allegedly overturn his 2020 election defeat and the January 2021 Capitol attack.
Several netizens took to social media to question the music group’s political comment.
The controversial act took place during Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve event. Green Day had taken the stage to perform their hit classics, including the legendary song, American Idiot. During the performance, instead of singing the lyrics, “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda,” lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong crooned:
“I’m not a part of the Maga agenda”
Evidently, the Caliofrnia-native was taking a jab at Trump’s slogan, Make American Great Again, shortened to MAGA.
The 2004 hit track was written following the 9/11 tragedy and in protest of George Washington Bush’s presidency. It expressed the discontent of several Americans, especially with the lyrics:
“Well, maybe I’m the f**got America, I’m not a part of a redneck agenda. Now everybody, do the propaganda. And sing along to the age of paranoia.”
“They are irrelevant”: Netizens diss Green Day following New Year’s Eve concert
Internet users were unimpressed with the change in lyrics and took to dissing the iconic band relentlessly. A few reactions to the shocking moment read:
Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong has protested against Donald Trump in the past
This is not the first time the band has publicly stood against the former president. During their American Music Awards performance in Los Angeles, they chanted in 2016:
“No Trump, no KKK [Ku Klux Klan], no fascist USA”
This came in the aftermath of Trump being elected in the presidential election.
In 2018, Billie Joe Armstrong also said during a Cannes Lions concert- “I f**king hate Donald Trump so much. I used to scream I hated George Bush. This one is a little different. This one is bad, it’s like acid gone bad.”
During an interview with Kerrang! magazine, Armstrong also compared Trump to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Speaking about his disdain towards the 45th U.S. president, Armstrong said at the time:
“The worst problem I see about Trump is who his followers are. I actually feel bad for them, because they’re poor, working-class people who can’t get a leg up… and he’s preyed on their anger. He just said- ‘you have no options and I’m the only one, and I’m going to take care of it myself.’ I mean that’s f*cking Hitler, man!”
It seems like Tesla CEO Elon Musk was also not a fan of Green Day’s latest on-stage antics. He took to X to opine that the Grammy-winners went from “raging against the machine” to becoming a supporter of the same.
As the band faces a barrage of criticism online, they also preparing for the release of their latest album, Saviors, which will come out later this month. The first track of the album, The American Dream is Killing Me, was released in October.
