White House communications director blasts Bruce Springsteen with his own lyrics

Jessica Schladebeck, New York Daily News on Feb 19, 2026

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NEW YORK — The White House is writing off Bruce Springsteen — and it’s using the Boss’ own lyrics to do it.

Springsteen and his E Street Band earlier this week announced that their 20-stop “Land of Hope and Dreams Tour” will kick off on March 31 with a performance in Minneapolis. The location, a site of ongoing unrest since the start of the New Year, is an apparent swipe at President Donald Trump and his immigration crackdown in the city, where two U.S. citizens were fatally shot by ICE agents last month.

The tour also includes a stop in D.C. at Nationals Park on May 27.

“We are living through dark, disturbing, and dangerous times,” Springsteen said in the statement, adding that America is “under attack by our wannabe king and his rogue government in Washington, D.C.”

It has since prompted a response from White House communications director Steven Cheung.

“When this loser Springsteen comes back home to his own City of Ruins in his head, he’ll realize his Glory Days are behind him and his fans have left him Out in the Street, putting him in a Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out because he has a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his brain,” he said in a statement to Politico.

Over the course of 40-year career, Springsteen has won 20 Grammys, an Oscar and a Tony. He has also been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, received a Kennedy Center Honor and, in November 2016, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Back in January, Springsteen released “Streets of Minneapolis,” which he said was inspired by the “state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis.” And it’s far from the first time the New Jersey rocker has called out the Trump administration. He also endorsed Kamala Harris for president back in 2024, triggering a response from Trump.

“Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy,” Trump wrote at the time. “Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country.”