The Boss says, 'You're not the boss of me'
As Trump continues a campaign of threats and intimidation against his critics, will the megastar's words turn the tide?
Mahmoud Khalil. Rumeysa Ozturk. Hannah Dugan. Ras Baraka. Bruce Sprintsteen.
There’s a song made popular on the children’s show Sesame Street that goes, “One of these things is not like the other …” Sadly, it doesn’t apply here. From immigrant grad students to a megastar American rock icon, they are, while worlds apart, very much the same. All have run afoul of the president of the United States for opposing him.
(Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA album in a second-hand record store bin. Photo by Jose Antonio Gallego Vázquez on Unsplash)
Immigrant graduate students Khalil and Ozturk are near the bottom of the power ladder. Their loss of freedom, in Ozturk’s case for six weeks, in Khalil’s for months and counting, are punishment for speaking out during campus protests or in student newspapers against Israel’s war on Gaza, with Homeland Security treating them as virtual terrorist threats because their sympathies lie with the “wrong” side.
Dugan and Baraka, a county court judge and mayor, respectively, who sit higher up the power chain, were arrested on misdemeanor charges by the same federal Immigration enforcement agency. Dugan, who was recently indicted by a grand jury in her home state of Wisconsin, is accused of helping an immigrant sought by Homeland Security for possible deportation try to evade capture. Baraka was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on charges of trespassing while he was outside a Newark, N.J., ICE detention facility. On a weekend news show, Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin lied about the circumstances of his arrest, claiming he “stormed” into the facility, although footage taken by news cameras and personal mobile devices show Baraka was escorted onto the property.
And then there’s The Boss. He hasn’t been arrested, or charged with a crime. But the president of the United States did say this on his social media platform the day after the singer criticized Trump while performing on a tour of the UK: “This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare’. Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”
The audacity of the person who swore an oath to protect and defend every American’s right to free speech — which includes the right to question and criticize the actions of government and its representatives — to harass a citizen for exercising that right proves he wants not to be the leader of a democracy, but a dictator.
Should Springsteen be concerned that the Trump regime will make good on the president’s barely veiled threat against him? That remains to be seen. If the 120-plus days since his Jan. 20 inauguration have shown anything, it’s that the president’s foot soldiers aren’t shy about carrying out his “agenda,” no matter how lawless.
As much as he would like to be, Donald Trump is not a king. He does not have the right to punish a person, whether a legal resident student visa holder or one of the richest, most popular entertainers on the globe. So far, the institutions in our government that hold power equal to the president’s have failed to hold him accountable. If that’s because the people he’s threatening have little or no power themselves, more shame on those institutions. And if that continues, America’s days of “no kings” could be coming to an end.
That’s a warning our courts, our legislatures, and every one of us can’t afford to ignore.
No Kings Countdown
30 days: Colonists’ breakup letter to King George defines our rights
29 days: Tyranny masquerades as immigration reform
28 days: “No kings, just men.” Labor Party member’s TikTok video
27 days (today): The Boss says ‘You’re not the boss of me’
(Until June 14, the day of Donald Trump’s planned authoritarian military parade and (not coincidentally) nationwide protests against tyranny, The Labor Party plans to talk about how un-American it is to aspire to be a king. The Labor Party is built by and for working people. We fight for policies that put people over profits. Ours is a grassroots movement fighting for real change. For inquiries, contact Labor Party Media Secretary Neel Sawicky at media@votelabor.org.)
I admire your investigative work and opinions. In Australia, we recently had a federal election and our Labor Government had a landslide win for a second term in office. The Leader of the opposition, lost his seat, primarily because he was using Trump style policies, and Australia voted. No thanks.
Love from Australia