Trump, Putin, Ukraine – and Springsteen

Inspired by his Russian dictator-friend, the U.S. President threatens a rock star for speaking up. Bruce, you'd better start learning 'Back in the USSR'. And stay away from open windows and tea.

BY MICHAEL ANDERSEN

My first Springsteen concert was in 1988, in my native Denmark. Since then, I have been to many, many of his concerts, in many different countries. I have, literally, loved his music and admired his persona - always on the side of justice, equality and democracy – pretty much as long as I have studied and traveled in the countries of the former Soviet Union, not least Ukraine. For almost 40 years, Bruce has been ‘mine’, like Ukraine has.

But, honestly, I never imagined that ‘the twain would meet’; Ukraine and the Bruce. I mean, you are reading this on a blog with a focus on Ukraine and international security - ‘normally’ an American rock star is not our most logical topic.

But then again, these are not ‘normal’ times. I never imagined that the world would go this bizarre, this fast. Because of 77 million Americans who installed a multiple-bankrupted casino owner and game show host in the Oval Office with a bunch of corrupt, toady underlings and all of the Republican Party sucking up to him

And so, today’s episode of this surreal soap opera has President Trump gunning for Bruce Springsteen. Telling him to shut up and threatening him. Why? Because Springsteen – in his short, precise, clever speech on stage in Manchester, UK, on Wednesday night – spoke about “an unfit president and a rogue government”, made up of rich, “sadistic” men inflicting suffering on so many groups, he spoke about the injustices.

Springsteen then went on to talk about Trump doing his worst to split the western alliance, cozying up to Putin against Ukraine. Trump is, Springsteen said, “abandoning our great allies, and siding with dictators, against those struggling for their freedom.”

Springsteen - and individual members of his ‘E Street Band’ - have on several occasions demonstrated their support for Ukraine, for example in the ‘Stand Up for Ukraine’ campaign.

(Springsteen and guitarist in the ‘E Street Band’, ‘Little Steven’ van Zandt, with his guitar painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, Barcelona, 2023)

And during the 2024 presidential election campaign, Springsteen threw his support behind Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris, and said that Trump was “running to be an American tyrant.” In 2016, in an interview with Rolling Stones magazine, Springsteen called Trump a “moron.”

Trump clearly feels that he is in a position to tell ‘The Boss’ to shut up – “this dried out prune of a rocker… ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT…” As well as threaten him - [when he gets back into the country] “then we’ll all see how it goes for him.”

And that despite the fact that Springsteen is one of the biggest, most important and popular musicians of the last 50 years. Furthermore, for many outside the U.S. – in particular in Europe and South America where he has an enormous following - Springsteen stands out as a singer and song writer with an thoughtful retelling of what has happened to the U.S. the last 50 years.

I watched a documentary series the other week about the Vietnam War. “The U.S.A. has never been the same after Vietnam”, it stated. Springsteen has chronicled that demise better than anybody.

The very fact that Trump believes that going for somebody of Springsteen’s stature is OK and a good idea politically, means that it can happen to anybody. Trump literally believes that he is above the law – or rather that he can use the law to shut up his critics, no matter who they are.

Within only four months of being in power, Trump has tried to subdue American universities and media – and some are caving. As Springsteen mentions in his speech, rich men are using their wealth to grab and keep power in the U.S. today. Do you remember when we thought that the worst that could happen was Elon Musk using his wealth to run ads so his Donald could get elected? Few imagined that only four months later that would seem like small change.

Throughout the decades, I have seen the same thing happen in places like Russia, Belarus and Ukraine - the ‘oligarchization’. During the 1990s, after the Soviet Union had broken down, the now-independent countries, 16 in total, for a short while had a chance of going democratic. None of them, apart from the Baltics, managed it. Rich, corrupt men, disguising themselves as politicians, took power; at first using the law, the courts, their control of the media, vicious personal attacks, to cripple opposition. When that wasn’t enough, critics would be jailed, tortured, killed. In many places, 30 years later, the same guys are still in power. Putin is a perfect example; the Russia he inherited in 2000 was much more open and democratic than it is today - after he has been in power for 25 years.

In Ukraine, of course, by 2014, the people had had enough and kicked out their corrupt rulers, and took their country back. That was the cue for Vladimir Putin to invade the first time, in March 2014 ; he could not risk democracy flourishing in Ukraine, because soon the Russians would then be ‘asking’ for the same. But the blasted Ukrainians insisted on democracy, free media and fighting corruption – so in February 2022, Putin invaded full-scale.

More and more of my American friends are quoting the 1946 poem by the German pastor Martin Niemöller, written after Hitler and the Nazis had burned down the world and killed many million people. It’s about your and my complicity by not speaking out or standing up for the rights of others, defending them and the principles of western democracy:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Now we can interject a new line here:

Then they came for Bruce Springsteen….

Niemöller’s poem ends:

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

It was exactly that right - and obligation, as he sees it - that Springsteen used in Manchester, speaking out against the Trump regime.

In his post, Trump claims that “Bruce Springsteen goes to a foreign country to speak badly about the President of the United States.” This could have come right out of the mouth of Leonid Brezhnev (Soviet leader in the 1970s). Threatening outspoken, critical artists was a very Soviet thing. And today, in many of the utterly corrupt and brutal regimes of the former Soviet Union, the constitution explicitly forbids you to criticize the great leader or, for example, use his photo in collages or memes. It is probably only a question of time before Trump will introduce such legislation in God’s Own Country.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece called “Trump has chosen side: The U.S. President is on team Putin now.” Many wrote to me that I was going too far. The same happened in February after I scribbled a piece about Trump and Putin ‘raping’ Ukraine. But just a few weeks later, Trump and his faithful dark knight J.D. Vance ambushed the Ukrainian President in the Oval Office – the debacle of ‘why are you not wearing a suit and saying thank you?’, remember? - and more started to see the pattern.

Both Trump and Vance have been open about how they see the war in Ukraine ending: with Ukraine accepting that Putin gets to keep the 20% of Ukraine he holds occupied. In the process, Putin has killed possibly 200,000 Ukrainians, and 12-14 million Ukrainians have had to flee their homes.

On the morning of February 24, 2022, Putin went on tv declaring that Russian troops were invading Ukraine. We have all seen the videos of the raping, torturing and killing in places like Bucha, Irpin and Mariupol.

But, nevertheless, to ingratiate himself with the Russian dictator, the U.S. President has had the audacity to suggest that it was, in fact, Ukraine that started the war, and that Zelensky is the main obstacle to peace.

But the most telling - and what should scare us most when thinking about what kind of society Trump wants - is that the U.S. President constantly refers to the Russian dictator as his “friend” and that he describes Putin as “a genius” for invading Ukraine.

Trump shrugs off Putin’s terror bombing of Ukrainian civilians, in their beds at night, or in playgrounds or hospitals or buses, as just “a mistake” - despite the fact that it has taken place every single day, for three years by now.

In case some Americans are not aware, Trump’s exact words after a recent intensive Russian bombardment are worth noticing: Putin, Trump said, is only “doing what anybody would do.”

It was that cynical view of what people in power can allow themselves to do that the real ‘Boss’ was protesting.