White House Calls Natalie Maines a 'Despicable Nobody' After Donald Trump Concert Jab

Natalie Maines once faced death threats after declaring that she was ashamed George W. Bush came from Texas. More than two decades later, President Donald Trump has made the former president look considerably better to her.

The Chicks frontwoman told a New York audience she would now give Bush a “big wet kiss,” before sharpening the comparison with Trump. The White House answered with a personal attack that a public-relations expert says transformed her concert remarks into a larger national story.

During The Chicks’ Taking the Long Way anniversary tour stop at New York’s Beacon Theatre, Maines revisited the remark that altered the band’s career.

“We thought that was the worst it could get,” she said of the backlash that followed their condemnation of the Iraq War in 2003.

At a London concert that year, Maines told the audience, “We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas.”

The band was subsequently blacklisted by hundreds of country radio stations and received death threats that prompted FBI involvement.

“Now I’d give [Bush] a big wet kiss,” Maines said in New York. “Because now we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from the United States.”

“Natalie Maines is a despicable nobody who clearly suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted her peanut-sized brain,” a White House spokesperson told Fox News on October 14.

“Natalie Maines has been a cultural lightning rod for more than two decades, so any clash with the White House instantly carries that history with it,” said Amore Philip, founder of Apples and Oranges Public Relations.

“When an official spokesperson answers a musician with a personal insult, it elevates her criticism from a celebrity opinion to a national news story,” Philip explained.

Philip said celebrity criticism becomes a political flashpoint “when the response is bigger than the original comment.”

“Fans and opponents both read it as a signal about values, loyalty, and who gets to speak,” she noted. “The insult becomes the headline, and her original point travels further than it ever would have on its own.”

Philip argued that restraint would have served the administration better.

“Engaging gives the artist a bigger platform, energizes her base, and turns a passing remark into a cultural moment that reopens old wounds for audiences on both sides,” she said.