John Mellencamp stopped “Pink Houses” to mock President Donald Trump’s “Gulf of America.” The White House did not let the jab sit.
Davis Ingle, speaking for the White House, dismissed the 74-year-old rocker after Mellencamp used his Saturday night show in Holmdel, N.J., to ridicule Trump’s executive order renaming the “Gulf of Mexico.”
“Nobody in their right mind cares what out-of-touch, woke Hollywood celebrities have to say,” Ingle responded.
The moment came during Mellencamp’s “Dancing Words” Tour, as he worked through the opening verses of his 1980s hit and reached the line about vacationing “down at the Gulf of Mexico.”
“Well, there’s people and more people/ What do they know, know, know?/ Go to work in some high rise/ And vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico,” Mellencamp sang, then cut himself off with, “Wait a minute,” according to USA Today.
With the band still playing behind him, Mellencamp turned the lyric into a shot at the new name.
“The Gulf of Mexico? Is that right? It’s not the Gulf of America? What a stupid f–—-g idea,” Mellencamp cracked.
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He made a similar crack in another recent video, again stopping during “Pink Houses” to say he was not accepting the change.
“Wait a minute. Is it really still the Gulf of Mexico? They changed the name of it but I’m not buying it… That’s just not right,” Mellencamp said.
Mellencamp’s Trump criticism dates back at least to 2017.
That year, the singer used an MSNBC appearance to suggest Trump was “the worst president ever” without saying his name.
A year later, at a Farm Aid benefit concert press conference, he called the president a “madman” while warning that tariffs on Chinese products and China’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products could hurt American farmers.
At that same Farm Aid event, Mellencamp also attacked liberals and Republicans.
“I’m not proud to say I’m a liberal,” Mellencamp said, “because liberals are fucking cowards just like the Republicans are a bunch of manipulative assholes!”
Mellencamp also called liberals “chickenshits.”
In 2020, he backed Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign and appeared in an ad for the former New York City mayor.
“The stakes are too high to not nominate the candidate who will take the fight directly to Trump,” Mellencamp said in a statement announcing his support.
“From small towns to big cities, Mike Bloomberg has the experience to represent all Americans,” Mellencamp added.
In January, Mellencamp took his frustration with politics to Joe Rogan’s Spotify podcast, where he complained that modern politicians had lost “humility” and “respect.”
“Don’t take yourself so f—ing seriously and try to have some humility,” Mellencamp told Rogan.
Mellencamp said party labels did not matter to that complaint.
“You know, that’s what I hate about politics today,” Mellencamp said. “There’s no f—ing humility. How about some humility?”
“I don’t care what party you’re with. I don’t give a f—,” he added. “But show some humility and some respect for each other, which they just don’t. They just don’t, it’s terrible.”
On Bill Maher’s “Club Random” in February, the conversation returned to farmers.
Mellencamp brought up Farm Aid, the 1985 benefit concert he launched with Willie Nelson and Neil Young to support people like the ones he grew up around.
“All of us were naive enough to think that if we do this show, then the politicians will go ‘These guys have a good point. we need to help the small family farmer,’” Mellencamp said. “No. It’s going to take more than a f*ckin’ concert.”
Maher countered with Trump’s farmer payments, arguing that the checks followed trade policies that hurt soybean sellers.
“Huh?” Mellencamp replied.
“Trump wrote a lot of checks to farmers,” Maher told him, adding, “because he f—– them often with like, tariffs and stuff.”
Maher said China became the proving ground for Trump’s trade fight, while farmers absorbed the hit.
“He wanted to show China who’s boss, and who pays? It’s the people who sell soy beans to China,” Maher argued.
The $12 billion in “economic assistance” had been directed to American farmers facing dwindling foreign sales.
After Maher’s tariff point, Mellencamp asked when he first met Trump. Maher’s Trump memories included a New York club in the 1990s and a Playboy mansion party, where the future president’s “power suite” made him “stick out.”
Maher said the next time he saw Trump was at their much-publicized White House dinner last year.
Mellencamp then shared his own story from a Super Bowl in the 1980s, when Trump bought him popcorn and Cokes.
“He couldn’t have been nicer,” Mellencamp recalled.
The singer said Trump acted the same way when they ran into each other a few more times afterward.