During a concert at the Starland Ballroom in New Jersey on Wednesday, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong attacked Donald Trump, sarcastically calling him “New York’s finest” and changing the lyrics to one of the band’s songs to express his disdain for the GOP nominee.
During the band’s performance of “Holiday,” Armstrong called for the lights to be cut. As the band played in the background, the singer inquired of the audience, “You guys been watching the news lately? What do you think of our candidates for the presidency of the United States of America?”
The audience responded with raucous boos. “What do you think of ‘New York’s finest,’ Mr. Donald Trump?” Armstrong continued sarcastically. That question was met with the same response.
“No racism, no racism, no racism in this f***ing room, I’ll tell you that right now,” he said. The crowd cheered as he continued: “There is no white supremacy in this fu***ing room right now. We are coming together, tonight here in New Jersey, to call bull***t on all the f***ing politicians.”
Armstrong and the rest of Green Day then transitioned back into “Holiday,” but with some changes to the lyrics.
Instead of “the representative from California has the floor,” Armstrong changed the words to “the representative from New Jersey has the floor,” likely referring to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, whom the band later named “the enemy” during their performance of “Know Your Enemy.”
As the band continued singing “Holiday,” Armstrong changed the lyrics from “Pulverize the Eiffel Tower” to “Pulverize Trump Towers.” The crowd at the venue, which happens to be located just 35 miles from the site of the World Trade Center attack, responded with cheers and appeared to be singing along:
The representative from New Jersey has the floor
Zieg Heil to the president Gasman
Bombs away is your punishment
Pulverize Trump Towers
Who criticize your government
Bang bang goes the broken glass and
Kill all the fags that don’t agree
Trials by fire, setting fire
Is not a way that’s meant for me
Just cause (hey, hey, hey)
just cause, because we’re outlaws yeah!
This isn’t the first time Armstrong has attacked Trump. In an August interview with Kerrang magazine the Green Day musician compared the GOP nominee to Hitler.
“The worst problem I see about Trump is who his followers are,” Billie Joe explained in the interview. “I actually feel bad for them, because they’re poor, working-class people who can’t get a leg up. They’re pissed off and he’s preyed on their anger.
“He just said, ‘You have no options and I’m the only one, and I’m going to take care of it myself.’ I mean, that’s f***ing Hitler, man!”
“I don’t even know how else to explain it. I wish I were over-exaggerating. And sometime maybe I do over-exaggerate with (George W) Bush. But with Trump, I just can’t wait until he’s gone.”
Armstrong added that people are unable to “rationalize” with one another due to their fear and anger, with nothing in between. “In a nutshell, that is what the record reflects,” he said. “But I’m trying to also look at myself as part of the problem.”
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