Why Donald Trump is so scared of Bruce Springsteen

The Boss takes on MAGA's greatest advantages—fear and newslessness.

“There's some very weird, strange and dangerous shit going on out there right now,” Bruce Springsteen said last week in Manchester, England.

If you’re like me (aging like a banana and addicted to eating Nutella out of the jar), you probably heard about Springsteen’s comments because of Donald Trump.

First, Trump whined about Bruce.

Then, probably after he saw the entire clip, which The Boss had conveniently posted online, Trump threatened, accusing Springsteen of campaign finance violations.

Trump sees a real threat

Lots of Democrats used this as a chance to suggest that Trump is suffering from dementia or some other ravages of aging. This barely closeted ableism or attempt to even the score for endless fixation on Joe Biden is part of the left’s favorite habit: Underestimating Donald Trump.

Let me be clear, I wish Donald Trump were rapidly deteriorating. I’d prefer it if the horrors that come out of his mind were any different than the horrors that have been emanating from him since he called for the judicial lynching of the Central Park Five or birthered Barack Obama.

But the truth is, I think he’s sharper and more effective than ever. That may mean—and probably means—he’s a sociopath or a psychopath, but the man sees a threat in The Boss. And he should.

Modeling fearlessness

Since this second Trump regime has emerged, Trump has exploited two advantages to cow the elite in this country. The first is fear.

Just the sound of the phone ringing from the White House has been enough to make most law firms, universities, and major media conglomerates crumble like month-old bread.

Bruce is doing the opposite.

After only seeing the headlines, I finally watched the video. It’s stirring and relatable in a way that only an artist of Bruce’s caliber and mass appeal can be.

But it's not only that. After the first few beats, Bruce's words offer a model for the kind of speech that every “normie” Democrat should be getting whenever they can get in front of a crowd, especially a crowd that just isn’t filled with normie Resistance-type Democrats, whom I love but already get what’s going on.

(The only note that I’d have for him is that Anat Shenker-Osorio would suggest he use “fascism” instead of “authoritarianism.” But that would only make his A and A+.)

Bruce is modeling fearlessness for his millions and millions of fans.

And as he’s doing it, he’s using his platform to do what most elected Democrats have too reluctant to do: He’s making the case for mass mobilization as the ultimate check on Trump by informing America about the “very weird, strange and dangerous shit” being done in the names and possibly will be done to them.

Trump gets that. Bruce is one of the few Americans resourced and brave enough to stand up to a rogue president. That’s why Trump is trying to sic his Department of Justice on Bruce, as a warning to any celebrity who might speak out against this regime.

The AP called it "a spat,” and that is entirely missing both the import and stakes of this crucial drama.

The ‘opt-out’ presidency

MAGA’s greatest advantage is that it came along after, or because, the Republican Party had spent generations building a culture of newslessness.

The only “consensus” media left in America is the right-wing media, which controls all the big incentives and generally drives what gets covered in what’s left of real journalism. You can watch and listen to right-wing media all day and still be newsless. That’s the whole point.

Newspapers are pretty much done. Whole swaths of the country get their news from Sinclair or other GOP front groups. And the nihilism, contempt, and bigotry coursing through these stories either stimulate the worst instincts in the audience or turn them off entirely to politics—both are huge wins for Republicans.

This was made possible by the demise of journalism as we knew it, thanks to technology killing the ad industry and no big money taking any interest in protecting information as a public good. And Trump’s “flood the zone with shit” strategy, as described by Steve Bannon, is perfect for an era where we get most of our news by algorithm.

In a must-read column by Rob Flaherty, the Deputy Campaign Manager for the Harris/Walz campaign explained what this means for Democrats:

Today’s culture is no longer a creation of executives in New York City and Los Angeles. Thanks to algorithms and an endless set of media choices, what you see, read and hear is a personalized reflection of your own interests. It’s like a city with a lot of different neighborhoods. You might live in the personal fitness neighborhood or the parenting neighborhood, and you’ll never cross over into the equine science neighborhood or, say, the politics neighborhood. So if you don’t care about politics — or more precisely, don’t trust our politics — you don’t have to hear about it at all. A voter can turn on, tune in or opt out.

Rob’s convincing case is that Democrats are failing with these opt-out voters. I have several theories as to why that is. However, I also have plenty of evidence to support his claim.

The less you know, the more you like Trump

Dismissing MAGA as unintelligent and purposely ignorant is almost as unhelpful to Trump as assuming he’s a blathering old fool who just happened to bring America to the brink of fascism, twice.

What we can say for sure about Trump is that people who closely follow the news don’t like him.

“Harris won with voters who pay serious attention to political news,” Data for Progress explained last November. “Among those who don’t, her support collapsed, giving Trump a clear advantage.”

This trend has continued in 2025, the New York Times finds:

Voters who have not heard much about some of the many major news events from the first 100 days of Mr. Trump’s second term have a higher opinion of the job he is doing, according to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll.

The poll points to specific examples, notably finding that the more you know about Trump’s horrific kidnapping and exile of American residents, the more you disapprove of his immigration policies:

There are always a few things going on.

People who like Trump are notoriously hard to poll. They know we think they should be ashamed, and they either internalize that or play with that by lying to pollsters. And notoriously, supporters of any politician tend to claim that they’re tuned out when their guy is eating shit, like Trump is in so many ways.

Or maybe, they heard about Joe Rogan’s response to the exile of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, one of the few areas he’s broken with the regime, even though it was couched totally in Rogan’s fascist-friendly “context.”

Regardless, the more we can get people to admit to understanding what Trump has done, the better the chance of eventually overcoming his fascistic desires.

But approval in polls will never be enough,

Resistance, refusal, and ridicule

Elections sit far on the horizon, with no guarantee they will save us.

What will save us?

Anat Shenker-Osorio explains this requires “ a break from any sense of normalcy.”

To emphasize, she says, “our goal is sustaining mass resistance, refusal and ridicule, which is the only thing that has successfully confronted a fascist regime in the past…”

That’s exactly what Bruce was summoning.

And unlike us, Bruce can break through to the “opt-out voters.” He probably won’t reach younger voters. But he could inspire younger artists to stand up.

And that’s why Trump, wisely, knows this isn’t just some spat.

This is how this regime plans to shut down any opposition that can break through newslessness to stand up to fascism.

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