Springsteen blasts Trump – Beyoncé expected at Democrat rally in Texas

Following a greatest hits performance from Bruce Springsteen at Kamala Harris’ rally in Atlanta last night, only days after publicly endorsing her, Beyoncé is expected to appear today in her hometown of Houston at a rally for Harris.

Harris’ presidential campaign has taken on Beyonce’s 2016 track ‘Freedom’ as its anthem, and the singer’s planned appearance brings a high-level of star power to what has become a key theme of the Democratic nominee’s bid: freedom.

Harris heads to the reliably Republican state today just 10 days before Election Day in an effort to refocus her campaign against Donald Trump on reproductive care.

Harris’ Houston trip is set to feature women who have been affected by Texas’ restrictive abortion laws, which took effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Harris has centered her campaign around the idea that Trump is a threat to American freedoms, from reproductive and LGBTQ rights to the freedom to be safe from gun violence.

Accusations of fascism and Hitler references

At yesterday’s rally, Springsteen slammed Donald Trump: “I want a president who reveres the Constitution, who does not threaten but wants to protect and guide our great democracy, who believes in the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power, who will fight for a woman’s right to choose, and who wants to create a middle-class economy that will serve all our citizens.”

He added: “There is only one candidate in this election who holds those principles dear: Kamala Harris. She’s running to be the 47th president of the United States, Donald Trump is running to be an American tyrant. He does not understand this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American. That’s why on November 5th, I’m casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.”

Springsteen’s tyrant comment echoes deeply at the moment, especially after the recent comments made by General John Kelly, who served under Trump as his chief of staff. Kelly said in a New York Times interview that Trump fits the “general definition of a fascist” and confirmed the Republican candidate’s fascination with Adolf Hitler.

“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too.'”

In a separate interview with the Atlantic, Kelly described how Trump demoaned that he did not have generals who were loyal in the way he believed military commanders had been to Hitler.

His statements have propelled the issue of fascism to the forefront of the US presidential election, with Kamala Harris amplifying Kelly’s comments during a CNN town hall meeting. She said that it was “deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous” that he would “invoke” Hitler, and later told moderator Anderson Cooper that she agreed that Trump was a fascist.

Trump hit back at Kelly on his Truth Social platform by calling him a “degenerate” and a “low life”, while also inaccurately accusing Harris on X of calling him Adolf Hitler, when it was Kelly who made the direct reference.

His X post accusing Harris of “going so far as to call me Adolf Hitler, and anything else that comes to her warped mind”, because, he claims, polls indicate she is losing, has received more than 28 million views as of writing.

Beyoncé is expected at Harris’ Houston rally today, while Bruce Springsteen is next scheduled to appear at Harris’ Philadelphia rally on Monday 28 October.

Additional sources • AP, CNN, The Atlantic