Folk-rock icon Joan Baez has voiced her unwavering support for Bruce Springsteen as he continues to critique President Donald Trump, and she hasn’t held back in expressing her alarm about the direction of the country under his administration.
On his European tour—kicking off at Manchester’s Co-op Live on May 15—Springsteen has paused between songs to deliver heartfelt speeches. From Lille to Marseille and Liverpool, he has reminded fans why America’s promise of freedom and hope has endured for centuries.
At the Anfield Stadium show in Liverpool on June 4, where Far Out was in attendance, Springsteen prefaced “Land of Hopes and Dreams” by declaring, “The America I’ve written about, the beacon of liberty for 250 years, is now overseen by a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration.”
His outspoken stance has garnered solidarity from musical greats such as Eddie Vedder and Eric Church—and now, Joan Baez herself.
Baez’s Stark Warning
In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Baez drew parallels between Trump’s early days back in the White House and authoritarian tactics she witnessed during her human-rights work in Chile, Argentina, Brazil and the Eastern Bloc. “Within the first 100 days, people were being sent to prisons infamous for torture,” she said. “It’s the same ruthless steps toward dictatorship I’ve seen before.”
She confessed her fear about “how quickly these changes are happening and where they’re taking us—daily acts of cruelty we can’t ignore.” Praising Springsteen’s rallying cry, she added, “I appreciated him saying, ‘It’s happening now.’ It’s not something in the future—it’s here already.”
A Nation Taken by Surprise
Reflecting on the 2024 election results, Baez admitted she was “completely surprised” by the outcome—a shock she first recognized not from headlines but from the stunned expression on her neighbor’s face. “I knew it was a disaster,” she remarked, “but this outcome has been brewing for decades. It’s bigger than any one person—Trump just became the face of it.”
Music and Activism United
Baez’s recent remarks come on the heels of her performance at a political rally in April, where she joined Neil Young and Maggie Rogers to belt out “Rockin’ in the Free World” in support of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.