As thousands took to the streets around the nation over the weekend to protest the death of unarmed black man George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody last week, a number of artists lashed out at Pres. Donald Trump’s reaction to the marches during a time of national crisis. P!nk, who has been outspoken in her criticism of Trump in the past, was one of many who saw the president’s tweets focusing on the strong military response he ordered to quell the massive protest movement as being tone deaf to the underlying problems that sparked the public actions in dozens of cities.
“You’re a coward and a racist and just like everything else you’ve ever attempted in your life, A COMPLETE AND UTTER FAILURE. I can’t wait to vote you out in November. Maybe you’ll see the results from your baby bunker,” she wrote in response to a Sunday (May 31) tweet from Trump that read “LAW & ORDER!”; reports emerged over the weekend that Trump had been temporarily taken to a secure bunker underneath the White House on Friday night as protesters shouted and threw bricks and bottles outside.
Queen singer Adam Lambert said in an Instagram post that he was appalled by the “handful of ignorant, right wing, tone deaf comments” to his posts about supporting “the right to be enraged,” adding, ‘ALSO. TRUMP IS A COMPLETE JOKE. F–K HIM. I don’t care what political party you associate with, but that man isn’t a leader, he’s a liability, a liar and a cancer on this country’s flag.”
Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose, who recently clashed with Trump’s Sec. of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, had a strong reaction to Trump’s flurry of tweets over the weekend attacking the “lamestream media” for their coverage of the unrest, instead turning the focus on Trump, who, at press time had not addressed the nation about the five days of protests. Rose tweeted, “Lamestream media ISN’T doing everything within their power 2 foment hatred n’ anarchy, that’s U! As long as we get what Ur doing, that Ur FAKE NEWS n’ a truly bad, repulsive excuse 4 a person w/a sick agenda, we can work past U w/whatever it takes 2 a better, stronger future!!”
Protests in New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Louisville, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and more than a dozen other cities have escalated since video emerged last week showing Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of Floyd for eight minutes; Floyd later died in police custody. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd. Some of the protests over Floyd’s death have resulted in property damage, looting and traffic disruption, while many others have been peaceful.
Law & Order: SVU star Ice-T had an even more succinct reaction to Trump’s “LAW & ORDER!” tweet, writing, “This MF……” With Trump conspicuously absent from the public arena during this period of national reckoning over the latest incident involving a black man’s death in police custody, Josh Gad took a stinging swing at the commander in chief for his lack of leadership.
“Our nation is both crying and burning. And our President is tweeting from a f–king bunker not used since 9/11,” Gad wrote. “I’m done this with s–t. Absolutely done. Would a grownup please escort this man out of office and show some f–king leadership?”
On Saturday, Trump tweeted a warning that if protesters outside the White House breached the building’s fence, they would “have been greeted with the most vicious dog, and the most ominous weapons, I have ever seen,” an incendiary statement that some likened to the indelible images of police dogs sicced on civil rights protesters in the 1960s. Trump also specifically targeted states with Democratic leadership, saying that they have to “get MUCH tougher” on the protests or else the federal government will “step in and do what has to be done, and that includes using the unlimited power of our Military and many arrests.
See the tweets below.