Bruce Springsteen just released a new song called “That’s What Makes Us Great” with long-standing collaborator and Houserockers frontman Joe Grushecky. The song is in protest of Donald Trump, taking clear jabs at the 45th president of the United States and referencing him and his administration as “a con man with his crooks.” The new track, which features stanzas sung by Springsteen like “Don’t tell me a lie/ And sell it as a fact/ I’ve been down that road before/ And I ain’t going back” and “Don’t you brag to me/ That you never read a book/ I never put my faith/ In a con man and his crooks,” premiered this morning on Grushecky’s website and SiriusXM.
This protest song has been in the works for a while, with Grushecky bringing the written song to Springsteen and asking if he’d be interested in collaborating for it. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that in an interview with Grushecky, the songwriter noted that Trump lost his support he moment he started making fun of special needs people.” He sent the finished song to the Boss, who agreed to collaborate on the song and then “gave it the Bruce treatment.”
Bruce Springsteen has already made a name for himself as staunchly anti-Trump, with him previously noting an interview with Rolling Stone, that “The republic is under siege by a moron.” He also performed at a rally for then presidential candidate Hillary Clinton before her loss and has covered other protest songs in concert and been vocal of his criticisms of the president, going on record as saying in the same Rolling Stones interview, “The ideas he’s moving to the mainstream are all very dangerous ideas – white nationalism and the alt-right movement. The outrageous things that he’s done – not immediately disavowing David Duke? These are things that are obviously beyond the pale for any previous political candidate. It would sink your candidacy immediately.”