Green Day have used a recent show in California to speak up for the people of Minnesota and call out US Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller.
The moment took place during the punk trio’s show at the Kia Forum in California last Saturday (January 17), when they called out the Trump administration and, in particular, Stephen Miller, early in their 12-song set.
Kicking off the show with fan favourite ‘American Idiot’, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong continued his tradition of swapping the line “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda” to “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda”, taking aim at Trump and his “Make America Great Again” slogan.
From there, he broke into ‘Holiday’ and ‘Know Your Enemy’ and started by telling the crowd: “This song is anti-fascism. This song is anti-war. We stand up for our brothers and sisters in Minnesota… Ladies and gentlemen, Stephen Miller now has the floor.”
‘Holiday’ is an anti-war song, and was originally written about then-POTUS George W. Bush and his involvement in the Iraq War.
The comments aimed at the country’s Homeland Security Advisor come as Miller helped develop Trump’s immigration policy, promising to oversee “the largest deportation operation in American history” (via Daily Mail).
He has also strongly supported ICE in the wake of the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old woman in Minnesota earlier this month, and shared backing for the US to take control of Greenland (via The Independent).
Green Day have never been shy of speaking out about political issues throughout their career, and have regularly criticised Trump on stage during his time in office.
Back in September, they took a jab at the US President while performing at Ohana Festival and made a quip about the Epstein files.
Before then, shows across the summer saw the frontman speak out against Trump’s authorising of ICE raids across Los Angeles, and slam the President and Elon Musk at their Download Festival headline set, asking the crowd to call Trump a “fat bastard”, also telling them: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are slipping into fascism… it’s up to us to fight back!”
Green Day’s criticism of Trump goes back over a decade. At the American Music Awards (AMA) in 2016, the band led a chant of “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA”. In 2023, they announced a limited-time sale of a T-shirt featuring Trump‘s mugshot for charity.
In the lead-up to the most recent US Presidential elections, Armstrong had urgently encouraged fans to vote for Kamala Harris instead.
Since the gig in California last week, the pop-punk icons have been announced as playing the Super Bowl opening ceremony in their Bay Area home next month.