Music White is facing Trump. Good for him

Before becoming a declared critic of Trumpand even before being a musician, Jack White It was tapestry. Grew in Detroit and started as an apprentice at age 15, opening his own store, the THIRD MAN UPHOLSTERYat 21. His musical career took off a year later, when he formed the White Stripes with the then wife, Meg White. But he never stopped working with furniture, even teaching how to restore a bank in a cover story of the Rolling Stone In 2014. Very normal rock star things, right?

There is a clear connection between the music of White and your interior design business, which goes far beyond the common name (your seal is called Third Man Recordsbut the fascination of White by number three would give subject to another whole text). You will hardly see an indie rocker better: it strictly follows a color scheme-red for White Stripesyellow for Third man and blue for your solo work, with the black present in all. It treats vintage and historical objects with the same dedication that it dedicates to the preservation and reissue of music. In everything you do, Jack White acts totally intentionally and without apologizing for it.

“In carpentry and interior design, to be in the presence of Jack During the creation process – between ideas, hypotheses and those thoughts thoughtful – can be both inspiring and maddening, ”writes his nephew and partner, Ben Blackwellon the art and design website White. “There is no reason for a building to have acoustic lining, tin ceiling or bright yellow floors. But this is not the point. The point is to create something beautiful.”

So it makes sense that the reform of Donald Trump in the White House, with a style far from being beautiful, have annoyed White This month. The musician posted on Instagram A photo of Trump with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky In the Oval Hall, comparing the decoration to “a vulgar locker room, with gold and extravagant leaves, professional fighter”. He took the opportunity to praise Zelensky“True leader of a nation,” and his elegant black suit, but otherwise it stated that all that was “certainly a shame for American history.” The long and merciless subtitle is basically the equivalent rock’n’roll of critic Miranda Priestly. Flowers? For spring? Revolutionary.

But it gets even better. The White House communications director, Steven Cheunganswered Whitetrying to disregard him as “a finished loser, posting bullshit on social networks because he clearly has a lot of free time due to his stagnant career. It is obvious that he has been passing through a real artist, because he cannot appreciate-and frankly disrespectful-the splendor and importance of the oval hall within the” house of the people. ” Complicated.

White Not left for less and responded with a true 750 -word textão, immediately highlighting the black humor of the situation: he has been criticizing Trump publicly for years, and the only time the president responds is because White He called his decoration a tacky. In the past, White already detonated celebrities that “normalized” Trump. He left Twitter and, together with Megeven sued Trump for use “Seven Nation Army” in a campaign video (process they abandoned in the past fall).

The musician detailed his numerous attacks prior to the terrible policies of Trump – His “blatant fascist manipulation of the government”, his “gestapo tactics of the Ice“, Their” derogatory, sexist and pedophile comments on women, “their” ignorance of children dying in Sudan, Gaza and the Democratic Republic of Congo, “their” constant, constant, constant lies for the American people ” – and much more.

“I didn’t get attention to all this,” he said White. “It was the damn comments about the decoration of the Oval Hall that made them answer with insults. How petty, pathetic and sensitive this administration can be? ‘If you pass a real artist’? Thanks for giving me my tombstone inscription!”

It is important to face the declaration of Cheung with caution. After all, it represents a politician who recently described Bruce Springsteen like a “dry rocker as a plum” and proclaimed to the world that Taylor SwiftIt is no longer “hot”. But his other “kind” words about White And your “stagnant career” are not just funny, they are completely wrong. This is a guy who has been in the music industry for almost 30 years, with 12 Grammys In his luggage, and creator of a riff that became a corner in sports stadiums around the world. It is about to be introduced in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame In this fall. Olivia Rodrigo He cried when he met him. Bob Dylan He taught him to weld. Beyoncé sent you flowers. Its most recent release, the incredible album In name2024, received some of his best career criticism. Most musicians would kill to have a “stagnant career” like his.

White was rarely known as an openly political artist – his first time publicly endorsing a presidential candidate Bernie Sandersin 2020 – and he states in his publication that he is not a registered Democrat. But he was never silent either, especially at the beginning of his career, when he starred in famous rivalries with other musicians, especially with the Black Keys. “I think a lot of emotions have been demonized over the years,” he said in 2018, “as if they should never exist on the face of the earth. Absolutely no. Without revenge, anger and these ‘so -called negative’ emotions, how would we overcome World War II?”

At this time, the “negative emotions” of White They are winning. He is telling the truth to power and moving with the president, and his blows are hitting it. He turned 50 last month (and possibly he is the only person who has already received a Suzuki Samurai 1991 and his first cell phone at the same time). He no longer cares about softened versions of White Stripes. Now he has much greater questions in mind. And we must hear it now, more than ever.