Former President Donald Trump has urged his supporters to back country singer Jason Aldean, who is embroiled in a scandal over a new song and music video.
The former Republican president took to Truth Social late Thursday to praise Aldean’s single Try That In A Small Town, which was released in May, but the video was posted on Friday.
Aldean has been criticized for the song’s lyrics, which suggest that the “good boys” of a small town will use the “gun my grandfather gave me” against carjackers and robbers, but also those who “curse a cop” and “stomp on the flag and light it up”.
The video was filmed outside the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, the site of the 1927 mob lynching of an 18-year-old black man named Henry Choate and the site of a 1946 race riot.
‘Jason Aldean is a fantastic guy who just dropped a great new song. Support Jason at all times. WIZARD!!! Trump posted in Truth.
Former President Donald Trump has voiced his support for embattled country singer Jason Aldean, who is facing criticism over a new music video.
Trump endorsed Aldean in a late-night tweet Thursday, calling him a “fantastic guy who just came out with a great new song.”
Aldean’s video has since been pulled by Country Music Television, and the network hasn’t given any official reason for the move.
However, gun control activists expressed disgust at the lyrics, especially as Aldean survived the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, where 61 people were shot dead and more than 400 injured in the deadliest mass shooting in US history.
‘Hi Jason. I was also there on Route 91. While your security team was protecting you, I was on the ground watching someone bleed to death. So how about you have some class and respect for the victims and the survivors and what we go through every day and stuff? Thank you,’ said Twitter user @Ninergirl99.
Singer Sheryl Crow publicly criticized Aldean’s message.
“I’m from a small town,” he said. Even people in small towns are fed up with violence. There is nothing small town or American about promoting violence. You should know this better than anyone who has survived a mass shooting. This is not American or like a small town. It’s just pathetic.
Tennessee State Representative Justin Jones, who was briefly expelled from the body by fellow Republicans for protesting for tougher gun laws after the mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, said: “As Tennessee lawmakers, we have an obligation to condemn Jason Aldean’s egregious song calling for racist violence.”
‘What a shameful vision of armed extremism and vigilantism. We will continue to call for common sense gun laws that protect ALL of our children and communities,’ Jones said.
Jason Aldean’s video was filmed outside the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, the site of a 1927 mob lynching of an 18-year-old black man named Henry Choate and the site of a 1946 race riot.
Aldean issued a lengthy statement on Twitter Tuesday saying the allegations, especially those suggesting racism, went “too far.”
“In the last 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and compared to me (direct quote) not being very happy with the national BLM protests,” he wrote. “These references are not only without merit, they are dangerous.”
“There’s not a single lyric in the song that references or points to race, and there’s not a single video clip that isn’t real news, and while I can try to respect others to have their own interpretation of a song set to music, this one goes too far,” he said.
The video shows Aldean and his band performing in front of the courthouse.
The footage is then spliced throughout the music video that is meant to show crimes being committed and urban unrest, similar to the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that followed the police killing of George Floyd in 2020.
Jason Aldean (left) and his wife Brittany (right) attend former President Donald Trump’s New Year’s Eve parties at Mar-a-Lago. Here they are pictured on New Year’s Eve 2023
Trump gives Brittany Aldean (right) a forehead kiss with Jason (left) by her side, as the couple ringed in 2023 with the former president at Mar-a-Lago
detectives online, including TikTok user Destinee Starkfound that some of the footage, including a woman pointing the middle finger at officers and someone throwing a Molotov cocktail, was not shot in the US or on stock footage, respectively.
Trump’s endorsement of Aldean was not surprising, as the country star and his wife Brittany have spent time with the former president, including attending his New Year’s Eve parties at Mar-a-Lago.
Aldean has also been seen golfing with Trump.
The former president condemned the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020.
He countered with a “law and order” message while running for re-election, endorsing law enforcement over those protesting police brutality against black Americans.
The former president was also unsympathetic to calls to remove Confederate monuments, saying they represented America’s “heritage” and not a racist past.
