Bruce Springsteen Turns Stadiums Into Battlegrounds With New Wave of Anti-Trump Music

Bruce Springsteen has never been subtle about where he stands, but with a new protest anthem aimed at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a cross-country tour framed as a defense of American democracy, the Boss is once again turning stadium rock into a battleground.

Springsteen and the E Street Band announced a 20-date Land of Hope and Dreams tour across the U.S. beginning March 31 at Minneapolis’ Target Center. The tour arrives just weeks after the release of his ICE protest song “Streets of Minneapolis,” written in response to what he called “the state terror being visited on the city.”

“We are living through dark, disturbing and dangerous times, but do not despair. The calvary is coming” Springsteen said on Instagram. “We will be rocking your town in celebration and in defense of America, American democracy, American freedom, our American constitution and our sacred American dream. All of which are under attack by our wannabe king and his rogue government in Washington, D.C.”

Notably, the tour poster includes the phrase “No Kings,” echoing a growing protest movement planning demonstrations later this month.

“Streets of Minneapolis” is dedicated to “our immigrant neighbors” and to Renee Good and Alex Pretti, residents killed by ICE agents, according to Springsteen. After the song’s release, the Trump administration dismissed it, with the White House saying it was not focused on “random songs with irrelevant opinions and inaccurate information.”

The exchange places Springsteen in a widening circle of artists openly clashing with the administration over immigration enforcement and national identity — and it’s a fight President Donald Trump appears willing to engage in.

In country music, where overt dissent has carried career risks in recent decades, cracks are showing. Zach Bryan’s new song includes the line “ICE is gonna come bust down your door / Try to build a house no one builds no more,” prompting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to tell right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson: “I hope he understands how completely disrespectful that song is not just to law enforcement, but to this country, to every single individual that has ever stood up and fought for our freedoms.”

Bryan, a U.S. Navy veteran, later wrote that the song “hits on both sides of the aisle” and added: “Left wing or right wing, we’re all one bird and American. To be clear, I’m on neither of these radical sides.” Still, his willingness to address ICE at all marks a shift in a genre long wary of straying from conservative orthodoxy.

Beyond rock and country, the Grammy Awards delivered some of the most direct celebrity rebukes of ICE and Trump to date. Billie Eilish said “no one is illegal on stolen land.” Bad Bunny declared: “ICE out. We’re not savages, we’re not animals, we are humans and we are Americans … the only thing that is more powerful than hate is love.”

Trump responded on Truth Social, calling the Grammys “the WORST, virtually unwatchable!” and later blasting Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show as “absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!” and “an affront to the Greatness of America,” adding that “nobody understands a word this guy is saying.”

Bad Bunny, a U.S. citizen from Puerto Rico, was the first entertainer to perform the Super Bowl halftime show entirely in Spanish. He ended the Super Bowl set with the message “Together, We Are America” and “God Bless America.”