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Jack White took another swipe at Donald Trump and Elon Musk while performing as part of his ongoing global No Name tour, referring to the US president as “some bloated a**hole orange f***ing gorilla”.
The American rock star is a noted and vocal opponent of Trump, having riffed on the hit White Stripes song “Icky Thump” by selling “Icky Trump” T-shirts during his 2016 campaign.
In November last year, he also shared a lengthy post expressing his dismay at the 2024 election result, claiming it was “dumbfounding” that Trump had “succeeded in pulling the wool over so many Americans’ eyes not once, but twice”.
A recent clip has emerged of White’s show in Boston last month, which saw him close his Canada and north-eastern US dates with two nights at the Roadrunner.
Playing his 2018 single “Corporation”, which featured on his third solo album Boarding House Reach, White switched out the original lyric of: “I’m thinking about starting a corporation. Who’s with me?”
Instead, he sang: “I was thinking about becoming an oligarch, who’s with me?”
As he continued, he brought in a takedown of Musk over the Tesla CEO’s hugely controversial involvement in the current administration: “I was thinking about taking government subsidies and starting my own electric car company. Who’s with me?” he sang.
“I’m thinking about not being elected. Never holding a public office. Never serving one day of military service. But somehow having the authority to control parts of the US government. Who’s with me?”
He continued: “I’m thinking about not being properly vetted by the Supreme Court or Congress, just doing whatever the hell I want because some f***ing bloated asshole orange f***ing gorilla who’s failed at every business he’s ever ran wants me to be his golf cart partner.”
Last year, White threatened to sue Trump’s campaign over the use of The White Stripes’ hit “Seven Nation Army”, which featured in a since-deleted clip posted to X by his director of communications, Margo Martin.
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“Oh… Don’t even think about using my music you fascists,” White wrote in the caption of the Instagram post. “Lawsuit coming from my lawyers about this (to add to your five thousand others.) Have a great day at work today Margo Martin.”
He continued: “And as long as I’m here, a double f*** you DonOLD for insulting our nation’s veterans at Arlington you scum. You should lose every military family’s vote immediately from that if ANYTHING makes sense anymore.”
In September, the band appeared to make good on their threat as White shared the first page of a copyright infringement lawsuit to his Instagram page on 9 September, captioning it: “This machine sues fascists.”
White today (12 March) begins a string of four shows in Japan before returning to the US for a lengthy run of gigs that will conclude in Louisville, Kentucky.