Latest news with #DoYouHearthePeopleSing?'
Kuwait Times
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Kuwait Times
Trump cheered, jeered at ‘Les Miserables' debut
WASHINGTON: Cheers but also boos met US President Donald Trump as he attended a performance Wednesday of 'Les Miserables' at Washington's premier cultural institution, which he has effectively seized control of since returning to power in January. Trump's appearance at the opening night of the hit musical 'Les Miserables' at the renowned Kennedy Center could hardly have been more politically charged. The 78-year-old Republican recently orchestrated a conservative takeover of the famed arts venue, reportedly prompting some 'Les Mis' cast members to boycott the show. 'I couldn't care less. Honestly, I couldn't. All I do is run the country well,' Trump told reporters when asked about a boycott as he arrived with First Lady Melania Trump. The show's tale of revolutionary fervor, featuring street protesters in 19th century France manning the barricades against a repressive leader also seemed to take on new relevance as the United States itself faces fresh turbulence over Trump's governance. When the presidential couple appeared Wednesday evening on the central balcony, emblazoned with a presidential seal, booing audience members appeared to struggle to make themselves heard over cheers and chants of 'USA! USA!' Trump, who was joined by Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance at the premiere, has recently sent in troops to deal with protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles. 'We're going to have a safe country... Remember, if I wasn't there... Los Angeles would have been burning to the ground,' Trump insisted to reporters. California officials accuse him of 'dictatorial' behavior and of manufacturing a confrontation by deploying thousands of National Guard troops and US Marines. 'I think the irony is probably lost on him,' Peter Loge, director of George Washington University's School of Media, told AFP. California's Democratic governor Gavin Newsom, who has harshly criticized Trump's actions in his state, reacted on X to news that Trump was attending the musical with the plea: 'Someone explain the plot to him.' The social injustice portrayed in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel — coupled with songs such as 'Do You Hear the People Sing?' and 'I Dreamed a Dream' — has long resonated with audiences around the world. Billionaire Trump, who had announced his decision to attend 'Les Miserables' before the Los Angeles protests erupted, says he too has long been a fan. The real estate tycoon has played songs from the show at his rallies and political events. 'I love the songs, I love the play,' Trump told Fox News Digital last week. Asked which of the play's characters he most identified with, however, Trump punted to his wife. 'That's a tough one... you better answer that one, honey,' Trump replied. His attendance is yet another show of strength after installing himself as chairman of the center and replacing the entire board with loyalists in February. Loge said Trump's presence there was part of a broader effort at image-making by the reality TV star-turned-president. 'Les Mis is a great spectacle. And it sounds smart. It's not just a show, it sounds like it stands for something,' he said. Trump's takeover of the John F Kennedy Center faced opposition in some quarters. A historically bipartisan-supported institution, it has never been led by a US president before. Hit show 'Hamilton' canceled its run there in response. Trump countered by saying he had 'never liked' the rap musical, which is about the birth of the United States and its first treasury secretary. Several key figures at the Kennedy Center — including TV producer Shonda Rhimes who created 'Grey's Anatomy' and musician Ben Folds — resigned from their leadership positions. And the Vances — Usha Vance is one of the new board members — were booed by the Kennedy Center audience at a performance of the National Symphony Orchestra in March. Trump's takeover of the Kennedy Center comes amid a broader assault on what he deems 'woke' programming at cultural institutions, including the famed Smithsonian museums, as well as universities. – AFP
Politico
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Politico
How ‘Les Mis' Became a MAGA Anthem
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 11: U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive at the Kennedy Center on June 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump is scheduled to attend a performance of Les Misérables this evening. (Photo by) | Getty Images When the U.S. Army Chorus marched into the White House's State Dining Room in February, singing the rousing anthem 'Do You Hear the People Sing?' from Les Misérables to President Donald Trump and his guests at the annual Governors Ball, some on the left read it as a cry of resistance. 'Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?' choral members sang as they flanked the black-tied attendees in the historic room. 'Do you hear the people sing? Say do you hear the distant drums? It is the future that we bring when tomorrow comes.' The song has become the score for dozens of revolutionary movements since the musical, based on Victor Hugo's 1862 novel by the same name, debuted in the 1980s. In 2013, anti-government protesters in Ukraine sang it in Kyiv's central square as part of the Euromaidan demonstrations. In 2019, protesters in Hong Kong sang it in both English and Cantonese in defiance of the Chinese government. In 2024, South Korean protesters sang it outside the National Assembly after former President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law. But what Democrats missed in their hopeful reading was how the song has in the last eight years become an unofficial anthem for the MAGA movement — with the Governors Ball only the latest example of how deep a root Les Mis has taken in Trump world. During the 2016 election, after Hillary Clinton made her infamous 'basket of deplorables' comment, Trump held a Les Mis -themed rally, entering to the song as the words 'Les Deplorables' were splashed on the screen — a tongue-in-cheek reclamation of Clinton's remarks that quickly became a rallying cry for his base. Trump's own lawyers have even invoked the musical's imagery of law and justice in court filings. That is the backdrop against which Trump set foot in the president's box at the Kennedy Center Wednesday night, for the opening night of a four-week run of Les Mis. For Trump world, the president's appearance marks a radical, almost subversive, triumph over the Kennedy Center — an institution that, in the eyes of the right, has become an effigy of the progressive cultural elite that has long excluded them. After largely ignoring the Kennedy Center his first term, never attending a performance, Trump in February purged 18 members from its board, replaced them with a slate of allies and selected longtime ally Richard Grenell to run it. Wednesday night was an operatic finale to those efforts. As he stepped into view in the Opera House just moments before curtain, Trump received a warm round of applause from the crowd, followed by a hearty chorus of 'U-S-A,' underscored by a smaller chorus of boos. While intermission was bookended by one shout of 'Viva Los Angeles' from the crowd and another 'fuck Trump,' Trump received an otherwise positive reception, especially compared to the one Vice President JD Vance received in March while attending a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra. Trump was joined on the box level by a host of other notables including Grenell, Vance, Second Lady Usha Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pam Bondi, among others. It was a striking visual underscoring that the Kennedy Center's MAGA takeover is complete. 'The first term, we largely ceded a lot of things,' said Sean Spicer, who served as press secretary during Trump's first administration. 'This time, it's like, 'Why would I do that?'' Set against a backdrop of political tumult in 19th-century France, Les Misérables tells the story of a ragtag group of impoverished Parisians — from the protagonist Jean Valjean, who was imprisoned 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving children, to the band of student revolutionaries who make a heroic stand during the anti-monarchist June Rebellion of 1832. Hugo, a staunch opponent of authoritarianism who lived most of his life in exile for his political views, saw his book as a call to action in the face of injustice. Its many winding plots offer a sweeping meditation on the human condition — on grace, justice, liberty, freedom and, above all, redemption. The musical, adapted more than a century later, preserved much of that spirit but with Broadway flair. It is dramatic and bombastic, its over-the-top style emblematic of other musicals from the era, like Phantom of the Opera and Cats. Critics have alternatively praised and pilloried it for its overt sentimentality. That Trump is a musical theater fan — and has a particular soft spot for 1980s mega-musicals — is no secret. Songs from Phantom, Cats and Les Mis have long peppered his rally playlists. In his 2004 book, Think Like a Billionaire, Trump declared Evita, the musical about Argentine political icon Eva Perón, was his favorite show, saying he had seen the original Broadway run six times. But Les Mis has a special place in his heart, too. Before the show, Trump told reporters that he has seen Les Mis 'a number of times' and called it 'fantastic.' He even suggested in a recent Fox interview the Kennedy Center might extend Les Mis 's run. 'I thought it was just about our first choice. That's what we got,' Trump said, about the show coming to the Kennedy Center. 'And we have others coming, other great ones are coming.' (Trump added that the first theater production he ever saw was Cats, while First Lady Melania Trump said hers was Phantom.) In fact, Trump once aspired to be a Broadway producer. At 23, he co-produced a short-lived play with theater veteran David Black. In 2005, he flirted with turning his hit show The Apprentice into a musical. 'The president has an incredible aptitude for music and the arts,' said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, before the Wednesday night performance. 'That's why he is so excited about the much needed changes he is making to the Kennedy Center to restore it as an international icon for the arts.' During his first visit to the Kennedy Center in March, following its MAGA takeover, Trump told a gathering of board members that he had shown a special aptitude for music in his childhood, according to a New York Times report on the meeting. The president said that he could pick out notes on the piano, but that he had never developed his musical talent as his father, Fred Trump, did not approve. 'I have a high aptitude for music,' he said, in the Times ' retelling. 'Can you believe that?' 'That's why I love music,' he added. Les Mis has occupied a persistent, if subtle, role in Trump's political career. Trump world sees itself in the musical's hardscrabble revolutionaries, and Trump in its unjustly persecuted protagonist, Valjean; their political opponents are the villainous Inspector Javert, who is so rigid in his worldview that he fails time and time again to offer compassion to the musical's broad cast of characters. It was Javert to whom one of Trump's lawyers compared the court-appointed monitor of the Trump Organization after Trump lost his business fraud trial last year. (Trump, asked before the show which character in Les Mis he identifies with — Jean Valjean or Javert — said that was 'a tough one.') The impulse to see oneself as Valjean and opponents as Javert is centuries old, Hugo scholars say. Civil War soldiers on both sides read Les Misérables, then newly translated, around the campfire. Confederate troops even referred to themselves as 'Lee's Miserables,' in tribute to their leader Gen. Robert E. Lee. 'As a kind of a cultural resource, Les Misérables obviously gets simplified. It gets appropriated. You might say that's the destiny of any successful work — is to get transformed and changed and reused,' said David Bellos, a professor of French and Italian comparative literature at Princeton University. 'And Les Misérables is so rich that you can read a great number of different things into it.' As such, Trump critics have offered alternative readings. Some see him and his administration as the merciless Javert using the power of law to tyrannize the American people — and themselves as the persecuted revolutionaries fighting back. Others see him as Thénardier, the dealmaking innkeeper who serves as the musical's comic relief. Like Thénardier, Trump is always onstage, always selling — and no matter how many times he's knocked down, he's always left standing. And there are challenges with MAGA's reading of itself as the victorious French revolutionaries. For one, the revolutionaries don't win. The musical's favorite rebels, Enjolras, Gavroche and Éponine among them, are all killed by French soldiers during the climactic battle at the barricade; Valjean himself later dies sequestered in a convent, having spent his life hiding from the law. (And the book ends, literally, with Valjean going unremembered, his tombstone blank.) And while Les Mis is indeed populist, MAGA's affinity for it would seem to sit uncomfortably with the liberal causes that the protagonists champion. One of the themes more explicitly outlined in Hugo's book than the musical calls for universal property rights and the redistribution of wealth. (Hugo might have raised an eyebrow at the fact that some theatergoers Wednesday night paid $2 million to sit in a performance box and attend a VIP reception with Trump before the show, though the proceeds do go to support the Kennedy Center.) It's an apparent contradiction some in the movement hold in one hand with their love for the musical in the other. 'It's very populist. It appeals to our sensibilities in that regard,' said one Trump ally who is a musical theater fan, reflecting on that tension. 'But,' the person acknowledged, 'also it's crazy radical lefties — or at least that's implied in the musical — so that's not us.' Hugo scholar Kathryn Grossman, a professor of French at Penn State University, described the tension bluntly: 'Trump has turned the Kennedy Center into an anti-woke arena. This musical is the most woke thing you could ever imagine. Totally woke.' And as much as Wednesday night was a victory for Trump world, it was not an unmitigated one. A handful of cast members boycotted the show. And some critics pointed out the uncomfortable parallels from the day's headlines — armed troops squaring off against protesters in Los Angeles while on a Washington stage actors playing French soldiers assaulted the revolutionaries' barricades. The creators of Les Mis have themselves shied away from taking political stances vis-à-vis Trump. Cameron Mackintosh — who in addition to Les Mis produced Cats and Phantom — was asked by Washingtonian before the play opened at the Kennedy Center during Trump's first term whether the musical had a particular resonance in Washington at that moment. 'You mean because of the political situation? Well, only that it's all about passionate beliefs, which certainly on both sides of the divide is what's happening in your country and indeed in ours,' Mackintosh said. 'People — particularly younger people — are feeling stronger about the way the world is governed than ever, and that is one of the themes that run through it.' Milling in the halls of the Kennedy Center before the show, one Les Mis attendee, who voted for Trump, acknowledged the musical's political undertones, and its resonance for the MAGA movement. 'Look, I understand that there are some songs from Les Mis that are meaningful to him, that draw correlations. But isn't that what the arts are about?' said the attendee, who asked to remain anonymous. 'Like, it can mean something for one person and then mean another thing for another. That is what art is. Why do we have to look at it like, 'Oh, it's now all of a sudden evil, because this one person sees it in one way.' This is art.' As for what he likes about Les Mis, his answer was simple: 'I just love a crescendo.'
Politico
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Politico
The Musical That Makes MAGA's Rebel Hearts Sing
When the U.S. Army Chorus marched into the White House's State Dining Room in February, singing the rousing anthem 'Do You Hear the People Sing?' from Les Misérables to President Donald Trump and his guests at the annual Governors Ball, some on the left read it as a cry of resistance. 'Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?' choral members sang as they flanked the black-tied attendees in the historic room. 'Do you hear the people sing? Say do you hear the distant drums? It is the future that we bring when tomorrow comes.' The song has become the score for dozens of revolutionary movements since the musical, based on Victor Hugo's 1862 novel by the same name, debuted in the 1980s. In 2013, anti-government protesters in Ukraine sang it in Kyiv's central square as part of the Euromaidan demonstrations. In 2019, protesters in Hong Kong sang it in both English and Cantonese in defiance of the Chinese government. In 2024, South Korean protesters sang it outside the National Assembly after former President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law. But what Democrats missed in their hopeful reading was how the song has in the last eight years become an unofficial anthem for the MAGA movement — with the Governors Ball only the latest example of how deep a root Les Mis has taken in Trump world. During the 2016 election, after Hillary Clinton made her infamous 'basket of deplorables' comment, Trump held a Les Mis-themed rally, entering to the song as the words 'Les Deplorables' were splashed on the screen — a tongue-in-cheek reclamation of Clinton's remarks that quickly became a rallying cry for his base. Trump's own lawyers have even invoked the musical's imagery of law and justice in court filings. That is the backdrop against which Trump set foot in the president's box at the Kennedy Center Wednesday night, for the opening night of a four-week run of Les Mis. For Trump world, the president's appearance marks a radical, almost subversive, triumph over the Kennedy Center — an institution that, in the eyes of the right, has become an effigy of the progressive cultural elite that has long excluded them. After largely ignoring the Kennedy Center his first term, never attending a performance, Trump in February purged 18 members from its board, replaced them with a slate of allies and selected longtime ally Richard Grenell to run it. Wednesday night was an operatic finale to those efforts. As he stepped into view in the Opera House just moments before curtain, Trump received a warm round of applause from the crowd, followed by a hearty chorus of 'U-S-A,' underscored by a smaller chorus of boos. While intermission was bookended by one shout of 'Viva Los Angeles' from the crowd and another 'fuck Trump,' Trump received an otherwise positive reception, especially compared to the one Vice President JD Vance received in March while attending a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra. Trump was joined on the box level by a host of other notables including Grenell, Vance, Second Lady Usha Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pam Bondi, among others. It was a striking visual underscoring that the Kennedy Center's MAGA takeover is complete. 'The first term, we largely ceded a lot of things,' said Sean Spicer, who served as press secretary during Trump's first administration. 'This time, it's like, 'Why would I do that?'' Set against a backdrop of political tumult in 19th-century France, Les Misérables tells the story of a ragtag group of impoverished Parisians — from the protagonist Jean Valjean, who was imprisoned 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving children, to the band of student revolutionaries who make a heroic stand during the anti-monarchist June Rebellion of 1832. Hugo, a staunch opponent of authoritarianism who lived most of his life in exile for his political views, saw his book as a call to action in the face of injustice. Its many winding plots offer a sweeping meditation on the human condition — on grace, justice, liberty, freedom and, above all, redemption. The musical, adapted more than a century later, preserved much of that spirit but with Broadway flair. It is dramatic and bombastic, its over-the-top style emblematic of other musicals from the era, like Phantom of the Opera and Cats. Critics have alternatively praised and pilloried it for its overt sentimentality. That Trump is a musical theater fan — and has a particular soft spot for 1980s mega-musicals — is no secret. Songs from Phantom, Cats and Les Mis have long peppered his rally playlists. In his 2004 book, Think Like a Billionaire, Trump declared Evita, the musical about Argentine political icon Eva Perón, was his favorite show, saying he had seen the original Broadway run six times. But Les Mis has a special place in his heart, too. Before the show, Trump told reporters that he has seen Les Mis 'a number of times' and called it 'fantastic.' He even suggested in a recent Fox interview the Kennedy Center might extend Les Mis's run. 'I thought it was just about our first choice. That's what we got,' Trump said, about the show coming to the Kennedy Center. 'And we have others coming, other great ones are coming.' (Trump added that the first theater production he ever saw was Cats, while First Lady Melania Trump said hers was Phantom.) In fact, Trump once aspired to be a Broadway producer. At 23, he co-produced a short-lived play with theater veteran David Black. In 2005, he flirted with turning his hit show The Apprentice into a musical. 'The president has an incredible aptitude for music and the arts,' said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, before the Wednesday night performance. 'That's why he is so excited about the much needed changes he is making to the Kennedy Center to restore it as an international icon for the arts.' During his first visit to the Kennedy Center in March, following its MAGA takeover, Trump told a gathering of board members that he had shown a special aptitude for music in his childhood, according to a New York Times report on the meeting. The president said that he could pick out notes on the piano, but that he had never developed his musical talent as his father, Fred Trump, did not approve. 'I have a high aptitude for music,' he said, in the Times' retelling. 'Can you believe that?' 'That's why I love music,' he added. Les Mis has occupied a persistent, if subtle, role in Trump's political career. Trump world sees itself in the musical's hardscrabble revolutionaries, and Trump in its unjustly persecuted protagonist, Valjean; their political opponents are the villainous Inspector Javert, who is so rigid in his worldview that he fails time and time again to offer compassion to the musical's broad cast of characters. It was Javert to whom one of Trump's lawyers compared the court-appointed monitor of the Trump Organization after Trump lost his business fraud trial last year. (Trump, asked before the show which character in Les Mis he identifies with — Jean Valjean or Javert — said that was 'a tough one.') The impulse to see oneself as Valjean and opponents as Javert is centuries old, Hugo scholars say. Civil War soldiers on both sides read Les Misérables, then newly translated, around the campfire. Confederate troops even referred to themselves as 'Lee's Miserables,' in tribute to their leader Gen. Robert E. Lee. 'As a kind of a cultural resource, Les Misérables obviously gets simplified. It gets appropriated. You might say that's the destiny of any successful work — is to get transformed and changed and reused,' said David Bellos, a professor of French and Italian comparative literature at Princeton University. 'And Les Misérables is so rich that you can read a great number of different things into it.' As such, Trump critics have offered alternative readings. Some see him and his administration as the merciless Javert using the power of law to tyrannize the American people — and themselves as the persecuted revolutionaries fighting back. Others see him as Thénardier, the dealmaking innkeeper who serves as the musical's comic relief. Like Thénardier, Trump is always onstage, always selling — and no matter how many times he's knocked down, he's always left standing. And there are challenges with MAGA's reading of itself as the victorious French revolutionaries. For one, the revolutionaries don't win. The musical's favorite rebels, Enjolras, Gavroche and Éponine among them, are all killed by French soldiers during the climactic battle at the barricade; Valjean himself later dies sequestered in a convent, having spent his life hiding from the law. (And the book ends, literally, with Valjean going unremembered, his tombstone blank.) And while Les Mis is indeed populist, MAGA's affinity for it would seem to sit uncomfortably with the liberal causes that the protagonists champion. One of the themes more explicitly outlined in Hugo's book than the musical calls for universal property rights and the redistribution of wealth. (Hugo might have raised an eyebrow at the fact that some theatergoers Wednesday night paid $2 million to sit in a performance box and attend a VIP reception with Trump before the show, though the proceeds do go to support the Kennedy Center.) It's an apparent contradiction some in the movement hold in one hand with their love for the musical in the other. 'It's very populist. It appeals to our sensibilities in that regard,' said one Trump ally who is a musical theater fan, reflecting on that tension. 'But,' the person acknowledged, 'also it's crazy radical lefties — or at least that's implied in the musical — so that's not us.' Hugo scholar Kathryn Grossman, a professor of French at Penn State University, described the tension bluntly: 'Trump has turned the Kennedy Center into an anti-woke arena. This musical is the most woke thing you could ever imagine. Totally woke.' And as much as Wednesday night was a victory for Trump world, it was not an unmitigated one. A handful of cast members boycotted the show. And some critics pointed out the uncomfortable parallels from the day's headlines — armed troops squaring off against protesters in Los Angeles while on a Washington stage actors playing French soldiers assaulted the revolutionaries' barricades. The creators of Les Mis have themselves shied away from taking political stances vis-à-vis Trump. Cameron Mackintosh — who in addition to Les Mis produced Cats and Phantom — was asked by Washingtonian before the play opened at the Kennedy Center during Trump's first term whether the musical had a particular resonance in Washington at that moment. 'You mean because of the political situation? Well, only that it's all about passionate beliefs, which certainly on both sides of the divide is what's happening in your country and indeed in ours,' Mackintosh said. 'People — particularly younger people — are feeling stronger about the way the world is governed than ever, and that is one of the themes that run through it.' Milling in the halls of the Kennedy Center before the show, one Les Mis attendee, who voted for Trump, acknowledged the musical's political undertones, and its resonance for the MAGA movement. 'Look, I understand that there are some songs from Les Mis that are meaningful to him, that draw correlations. But isn't that what the arts are about?' said the attendee, who asked to remain anonymous. 'Like, it can mean something for one person and then mean another thing for another. That is what art is. Why do we have to look at it like, 'Oh, it's now all of a sudden evil, because this one person sees it in one way.' This is art.' As for what he likes about Les Mis, his answer was simple: 'I just love a crescendo.'
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ahead of Trump address, hundreds protest in ‘People's Picnic' at North Carolina Capitol
More than 500 protesters gathered on the grounds of the North Carolina State Capitol to protest Donald Trump's administration. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline) Protesters dotted the North Carolina State Capitol grounds with picnic blankets and signs Tuesday as part of a people's picnic organized by the 50501 movement — marking the third such protest just over a month into Donald Trump's second term. The demonstration, which began shortly after noon, featured more flags and signs supporting Ukraine than the movement's two prior rallies in February, as attendees voiced outrage at the treatment of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his visit to the White House last week. At the sit down, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance accused Zelenskyy of 'gambling with World War Three' and berated him, according to CNN. Graphic designer David Prusko of Clayton, who came to Tuesday's protest bearing a 'Slava Ukraini' sign, said Trump's blow-up with Zelenskyy made him 'embarrassed to be an American.' Helen McNeill, who said this was her first 50501 protest, said she viewed the clash as 'a set up.' 'If he had shown up in a three-piece suit, they would have said he wasted money they gave him to buy the suit,' McNeill said. 'Trump wants him to bend the knee and kiss his feet.' The protest featured a number of musical performances, including songs by a protest music group known as the Piedmont Raging Grannies, who trace their origins to antiwar protests in Canada. Another speaker asked the crowd to join in and 'if you're unhappy and you know it, clap your hands.' Shortly after 1 p.m., the picnic's emcee belted out 'Do You Hear the People Sing?' from the play Les Misérables — a song intended to resist a king that the U.S. Army Chorus performed for Trump last month that many interpreted as an act of protest. 'They protested you at your own event and you were too stupid to get it,' posted Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) after the performance. Randy VanSlyke is a military veteran who spent 22 years serving in the army: 20 with the Michigan Army National Guard, and two in Germany in the early 1970s. He's appalled at the Trump administration's move to cut funds for the Department of Veterans Affairs and subsequently benefits for veterans. 'I did 22 years for this country, and they're going to take my benefits away that I put my life on the line for,' VanSlyke said. VanSlyke, who donned a U.S. Army cap and a 'Vets against Trump' sign, wore a shirt with a famous quote from Martin Niemöller following the Holocaust that reflects the speaker's inaction with standing up for different groups. First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me. – Martin Niemöller VanSlyke likened this with present times, pointing out how the administration is currently targeting immigrants. Afterwards, it'll move on to other groups, he said. With an eye toward events closer to home, protesters also voiced concerns over attempts to curb power from Democrats like North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson. Republicans in the state Senate filed last month a one-page bill to block Jackson from joining lawsuits against Trump's executive orders. 'We can't trust our elected officials to do what they were elected to do,' Stephanie Jolly said, carrying a sign saying 'silence is complicity.' Demonstrators gave voice to a backlash against layoffs of federal employees as well. Laura Thomas, who held a balloon shaped like Trump wearing a diaper, said she and her husband were planning their first cross country road trip, which included stops at national parks. 'We stand with Ukraine, we stand with the federal workers, save our national parks,' protesters chanted at one point. With the administration making cuts to the National Park Service and the president's recent executive order to increase logging in national forests, she's worried about access. 'We don't know if the parks will be open. We have a motorhome, we're hoping to camp at some of the parks,' Thomas said. 'That's a very, very small thing compared to what a lot of other people are going through, but the things that he's doing, it's a domino effect, it is going to affect everybody.' While Trump and Vance received much of the blowback from protesters, many also called out billionaires both within his administration and those who support it from outside. 'Our government is handing over every last bite to the billionaire class,' said Graham Johnson, who proudly identified as a 'queer, autistic, disabled citizen' of the U.S. 'My message to the billionaire class and the government that is upholding it is: 'Our pronouns are not a threat to you, our families are not a threat to you, our capacity for happiness is not a threat to you.'' In remarks to the crowd, Meschia McKelvie called on protesters to remember a list of billionaires she prepared on a whiteboard — including Office of Management and the Budget director Russell Vought, an architect of Project 2025, as well as Republican megadonor Peter Thiel and blogger Curtis Yarvin, a proponent of monarchy in the U.S. 'These are names that are not being uttered, not nearly to the level that they should be,' McKelvie said. 'The richest and most powerful men in America are in the final stages of a decades-long plan to kill democracy and turn your country into a monarchy ruled by tech billionaires.' McKelvie wore a shirt reading 'Delay, Defend, Depose' — words that were infamously inscribed on the bullets allegedly used by Luigi Mangione to kill Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. Asked whether she was concerned this might be viewed as an incitement to violence, she replied, 'I really don't care.' Crystal Free, standing with McKelvie, told NC Newsline about how her eight-year-old relative suffered severe brain damage after a traumatic car crash. After waking up from months in a coma, doctors wanted to send him to a rehabilitation facility. But insurance wouldn't cover the costs. 'This is actually a reaction to violence, because there are millions of people who lose their lives every day because of having insurance claims denied and delayed,' Free said.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Army Choir Sparks Confusion After Performing ‘Les Mis' Protest Song for Trump
The U.S. Army Choir performed 'Do You Hear the People Sing?' from 'Les Misérables' at the 2025 White House Governors Ball Saturday night — a choice that sparked confusion and mockery on social media. The president, who is said to be a fan of the musical, and his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, were both in attendance at the event. As one person put it on Bluesky, 'It is clear S–tler Von Clownface thinks the song represents him.' The song choice prompted confusion, cheers and disappointment on social media. While some believed the choir chose the song as a form of protest, others pointed out that Trump previously played the song at 2016 and 2024 campaign events, indicating that he is just a fan an unaware of the irony that it's a protest song against tyranny. 'I think the idea the Army Choir was trolling Trump is wishful thinking,' wrote activist Zach Brand-Wiita on Bluesky. 'I love 'Les Mis' and it's a much more progressive story than people realize, but it's also big and bombastic and over-the-top romanticism schmaltz — the kind of stuff Trump loves. Sorry, this was just them singing a popular song.' Author Ana Visneski, pictured above, agreed. 'So, as much as I would like to think the Army choir singing 'Les Mis' was done in protest, the reality is that the song list had to be approved,' she wrote on the same platform. 'Also it is clear S–tler Von Clownface thinks the song represents him and his followers — he got in trouble for using the music in 2016.' Dan Scavino, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, clearly thought the performance was a positive one. 'It was a great honor to attend this evenings Governors Ball at the @WhiteHouse, hosted by @FLOTUS Melania and @POTUS @realDonaldTrump —thank you!' he wrote. Congressman Jim McGovern was quick to respond, apparently incorrectly: 'They picked 'Les Mis'—a musical about standing up to tyranny. They protested you at your own event and you were too stupid to get it.' In 2016 The Guardian reported the producer and co-creators of the musical released a joint statement after Trump played the song at a campaign event. 'The authors of 'Les Misérables' were not asked for permission and did not authorise or endorse usage of 'Do You Hear the People Sing?' at last [week's] Trump rally in Miami, and have never done so for any of the songs from the musical for this or any other political event,' they said. 'As the musical's popularity and universal message have been part of international popular culture for more than 30 years now, countless political and social movements around the world, including the first Bill Clinton and Obama campaigns, have independently embraced songs from the musical as a rallying cry for their own cause,' the group concluded. The post Army Choir Sparks Confusion After Performing 'Les Mis' Protest Song for Trump appeared first on TheWrap.
