President Donald Trump escalated his feud against Bruce Springsteen in a late-night, all-caps rant calling for an investigation into the legendary rocker’s performance at a Kamala Harris rally last fall.
Springsteen kicked off his “Land of Hope & Dreams” tour last week by saying the U.S. was in the hands of a “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,” leading the president to fire back that Springsteen was a “dried out prune of a rocker [who] ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT.”
After the Boss responded at his show Saturday by calling Trump an “unfit president” whose administration was “persecuting people for their right to free speech and voicing their dissent,” Trump once again used social media to accuse Springsteen—along with Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey and Bono—of making “illegal” contributions to Harris’s unsuccessful campaign.
“HOW MUCH DID KAMALA HARRIS PAY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FOR HIS POOR PERFORMANCE DURING HER CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT?” Trump wrote. “WHY DID HE ACCEPT THAT MONEY IF HE IS SUCH A FAN OF HERS? ISN’T THAT A MAJOR AND ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION? WHAT ABOUT BEYONCÉ? …AND HOW MUCH WENT TO OPRAH, AND BONO??? I am going to call for a major investigation into this matter.”
The Democrats, however, already beat him to it, as Harris’ campaign spending came under scrutiny after the campaign raised more than $1 billion but still lost every single battleground state during the election.
That led some Democratic strategists to question expenditures including a $1 million town hall with Oprah Winfrey, and swing-state rallies featuring star performers such as Lady Gaga, Jon Bon Jovi, and Katy Perry, The New York Times reported.
Springsteen performed at a Harris/Walz rally in Philadelphia on Oct. 28, while Beyoncé spoke at a Houston rally on Oct. 25. It’s not clear what Bono has to do with the Harris campaign, though he did blast the president’s foreign aid policy over the weekend at the launch of his Apple+ documentary, The Irish Star reported.
Adrienne Elrod, who served as a senior adviser and senior spokesperson for the Harris campaign, told Deadline that the campaign did not pay for celebrity support.
“We have never paid any artist and performer,” she said.
The campaign, however, was required by law to pay the ancillary costs of the performances, she said. Expenses such as sound, lighting, and support staff must be reimbursed, since companies are not allowed to give cash or in-kind donations to candidates, USA Today reported.
Harris’ expenditure filings appear to show the campaign paid Springsteen’s production company Thrill Hill Productions about $75,000 on Nov. 19 for “travel and event production.” The Daily Beast has contacted Springsteen’s and Harris’ reps for comment.
Winfrey has previously said she was not “paid a dime” for the town hall she hosted, Deadline and other outlets reported. Instead, the campaign paid her company, Harpo Productions, to provide sets, lights, cameras, microphones, crew, producers, and even the chairs used during the live event.
“I did not take any personal fee,” Winfrey wrote. “However the people who worked on that production needed to be paid. And were. End of story.”
The campaign also paid Beyoncé’s production company $165,000 about a month after the singer spoke at a Harris rally in Houston, according to USA Today. Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, denied a claim going around in November that her daughter had been paid $10 million to appear alongside Harris.
“Beyoncé did not receive a penny for speaking at a presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris’s Rally in Houston. In fact she actually paid for her own flights for her and her team, and total Glam,” Knowles wrote in an Instagram post.
Trump nevertheless claimed in his post that Harris had paid for the endorsements.
“Candidates aren’t allowed to pay for ENDORSEMENTS, which is what Kamala did, under the guise of paying for entertainment,” his social media post continued. “IT’S NOT LEGAL! For these unpatriotic ‘entertainers,’ this was just a CORRUPT & UNLAWFUL way to capitalize on a broken system.”
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