{"id":2733,"date":"2026-07-04T06:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T06:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2733"},"modified":"2026-07-04T06:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T06:57:13","slug":"trumps-favorite-song-sanitizes-decades-of-foreign-policy-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2733","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s favorite song sanitizes decades of foreign policy failures"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

After musician after musician pulled out from President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cFreedom 250\u201d concert, he was left with Lee Greenwood, an opera tenor<\/u>, a couple of military bands, and Kash Patel\u2019s girlfriend<\/u>. The anthem that made Greenwood a star, \u201cGod Bless the USA,\u201d was written in 1985 during the height of the Cold War. It begins with the specter of loss\u2014\u201cIf tomorrow\u2014all the things were gone, I\u2019d worked for all my life\/ And I had to start all over with my children and my wife.\u201d Then the wounds disappear before they\u2019re felt: \u201cI\u2019d thank my lucky stars to be living here today\/ Because the flag still stands for freedom and they can\u2019t take that away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trump admin says it\u2019s running out of time before November<\/a><\/p>\n

Ronald Reagan made the song his campaign theme while launching a new age of American inequality by systematically busting unions and cutting taxes for the wealthiest. Greenwood treats layoffs and the resulting toll on ordinary lives as a mere inconvenience. As the refrain shifts from violins and a church organ to a military march, he repeats, \u201cI\u2019m proud to be an American, where at least I know I\u2019m free\/ And I won\u2019t forget the men who died who gave that right to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Honoring those who died resonates powerfully. Those who risk taking bullets to defend our country deserve respect for their service and sacrifice. Yet this gives us no special grace over citizens of other lands. And doesn\u2019t answer the question of whether or not it was necessary to put them in harms way to begin with. Because Greenwood says nothing about what freedom might demand of us, it becomes just an empty phrase, blessing all that our leaders may do, no matter how arrogant or destructive.<\/p>\n

We were defending freedom in this view, when supporting dictators from Chile\u2019s Augusto Pinochet to the Iranian Shah whose brutal rule laid the groundwork for the current theocracy and the war of choice that we hope has now finally ended. We\u2019re supposedly defending freedom now as Trump cozies up to dictators like Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin, Turkey\u2019s Recep Erdo\u011fan, and Saudi Arabia\u2019s Mohammed bin Salman, and while Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents grab innocent people off America\u2019s streets. When Greenwood sings, \u201cThere ain\u2019t no doubt I love this land. God Bless the USA,\u201d he never suggests what qualities of justice would redeem the love he declaims.<\/p>\n

Hard as it is, we\u2019re stronger for engaging the difficult questions about who we\u2019ve been as a country and who we want to be.<\/p>\n

Greenwood wrote the song after we invaded the 95,000-person country of Grenada, wanting to reflect \u201cthe spirit of America being proud.\u201d Reagan made it his campaign theme, and Greenwood has been singing it at Republican rallies and conventions ever since. Trump calls it \u201cthe greatest hit of all time<\/u>\u201d and sold a \u201cGod Bless the USA Bible<\/u>,\u201d (printed in China) that contains the song. Because Greenwood says that just living in America makes us free, his version of patriotism gets reduced to signing a blank check for whatever our leaders choose to do. It\u2019s a perfect match for this or any president who seeks to erase all limits on their power.<\/p>\n

Read more John Roberts has a message for Democrats planning to use Trump\u2019s powers<\/a><\/p>\n

But Greenwood\u2019s isn\u2019t the sole patriotic ballad to choose from. The late Waylon Jennings\u2019 \u201cAmerica\u201d reached No. 6 on the charts the year \u201cGod Bless the USA\u201d first came out. Written by Sammy Johns, the song affirms connection to native soil, as Jennings repeats, \u201cAmerica, America,\u201d slowly and tenderly as if to a woman he loves; then admits, softly, \u201cYou\u2019ve become a habit to me.\u201d But he also makes tough demands\u2014recounting his own history as an Anglo yeoman \u201cfrom down round Tennessee,\u201d then continuing, \u201cBut my brothers\/ Are all black and white\/ Yellow too\/ And the red man is right\/ To expect a little from you\/ Promise and then follow through\/ America.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a similar vein, \u201cAmerica the Beautiful\u201d writer Katherine Lee Bates celebrated \u201cpurple mountain majesties,\u201d but actively opposed America\u2019s imperial adventures, so added lines like \u201cGod mend thine every flaw\/Confirm thy soul in self-control\/Thy liberty in law!\u201dBruce Springsteen\u2019s whole career has been about honoring the courage and dignity of ordinary Americans, from \u201cThe Promised Land\u201d celebrating those with \u201cdreams that break your heart,\u201d to \u201cThe Rising\u2019s\u201d portrait of 9\/11 firefighters, to the \u201cStreets of Minneapolis\u201d chorus, \u201cSinging through the bloody mist, we\u2019ll take our stand for this land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hard as it is, we\u2019re stronger for engaging the difficult questions about who we\u2019ve been as a country and who we want to be. Patriotic ballads don\u2019t have to be political manifestos. But the best celebrate our diverse and contradictory land and acknowledge that true greatness does not flow like automatic grace. Rather, it\u2019s fulfilled through honoring common responsibility and connection.<\/p>\n

With democracy profoundly threatened, we need true patriotism more than ever. We can choose a patriotism of blind adulation. Or we can embrace the songs that demand the most of us.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump is \u2018in decline\u2019 and out of time as Republicans crash: GOP strategist<\/a><\/p>\n

An earlier version of this piece appeared in The Fulcrum. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After musician after musician pulled out from President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cFreedom 250\u201d concert, he was left with Lee Greenwood, an opera tenor, a couple of military bands, and Kash Patel\u2019s girlfriend. 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