Trump’s Latest Failure: Music – Rolling Stone
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Donald Trump has failed so much in his life that it might seem unfair to say that his recent foray into music is unique in its badness. After all, the former president has bankrupted a casino, defaulted on an airline, and screwed up owning a professional soccer team, to name just a few of his nefarious flops. In this grand scheme of things, what is one terrible song in the face of a lifetime of costly failure? Is Trump’s newly released “Justice for All” single really on par with his more expensive flops when it comes to sheer embarrassment? badness? Oh god yes. yes it sure is
For starters, the song itself consists largely of an atonal, roaring rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” “sung” by the J6 Prison Choir – a group of about twenty men who worked for them at the Washington, DC Correctional Treatment Facility are imprisoned for taking part in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol complex. While Trump himself is highly acclaimed for the track, his actual involvement is limited to a nasal recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, which at inopportune moments bursts through the choir’s sung verses with all the solemnity and bravado you’d expect of a man who does this the Elain Benes dance after every political rally. Supposedly this echo-heavy call-and-response act is meant to remind listeners that the song is like this patriotic And American And very seriously, but actually it just reminds people of that Trump may not really know the words first to the national anthem. To the extent that there is a consistent line holding the wildly off-balance track together, it’s the brooding keyboard tones that are tasked with the Herculean challenge of making it seem like everyone is in unison. The fact that it spectacularly fails to meet this challenge is as much an indictment of the anonymous producer of the song as it is of the singing talent of everyone involved. If you are hoping for a pinch of a harmonious melody, you do not have to apply.
On the other hand, those looking for a coherent melody probably aren’t the song’s intended audience. Although it catapulted Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” to number one on iTunes last weekend, diversity notes that songs with just a few thousand sales in a single day can command a seemingly sovereign number one spot on iTunes, conveying a sense of inflated importance that doesn’t necessarily lead to broader chart success. On Spotify, for example, “Justice for All” has sunk into relative oblivion with fewer than 150,000 views, while Cyrus broke a company record with 100 million streams in the first week of her single’s release. Trump’s track seems less concerned with artistic merit and listening pleasure than with MAGA virtue signals as the former president pushes ahead with his 2024 reelection bid; The track’s most heartfelt moment comes in its final seconds, when the prisoners begin to chant, “USA! USA!”, dropping the somber pretense of respectful victimhood in favor of the chest thump that more suits a group of guys accused of banging their way into Congress. (Trump went conspicuously quiet at this point in the song.)
Despite promising to use the song’s sales to support the jailed J6 defendants, it’s hard to say who “Justice for All” is really for? Does the MAGA universe care that it’s largely inaudible? Listen to it on your headphones and jog through the dirge, or blast it through the speakers of your extended-cab F-150 while recording a YouTube video of how the sight of a trans cashier at Walmart ruins your weekend has? What is that soundtrack To, Exactly? The next presidential celebration? Hopefully not.