Tom Morello has called out Donald Trump’s administration again, this time for using an alleged Nazi slogan at a news conference.
It comes after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis last week by an ICE agent during a large-scale immigration enforcement operation. The death of the poet and mother of three has since triggered widespread protests in the US.
A volunteer in “neighbourhood patrols” to keep track of ICE activity, Good was shot in her car, and footage from the moment showed that she had attempted to drive away from the confrontation. DHS officials dispute this, claiming that she had tried to “run over” the officer.
At a recent news conference, US Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem addressed the press to reiterate that she believes that the officer was acting in self-defence when he shot Good.
Taking to Instagram yesterday (Monday December 12), Rage Against The Machine guitarist and solo artist Morello hit out at Noem. He alleged that she stood behind a podium that had a “Nazi mass murder slogan” written “verbatim” on it.
The phrase written on the podium read: “One of ours, all of yours”.
On Instagram Stories, Morello shared a post that alleged that the term was coined “when an SS officer was killed in Czech Village, and the Nazis killed every single male resident of that village in response.”
In a grid post on Instagram, Morello shared the post again, alongside a photo of him holding a guitar that has “Fuck Trump” written on the back, and a quote from Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls that reads: “There are many who do not know they are fascists but will find it out when the time comes.”
In response to the claims put forward by Morello, the Department of Homeland Security shared a response with Billboard that read: “Calling everything you dislike ‘Nazi propaganda’ is tiresome.
“DHS will continue to use all tools to communicate with the American people and keep them informed on our historic effort to Make America Safe Again.”
Billboard also highlights how the US Holocaust Memorial Museum shares that the SS were a collective that oversaw the horrific concentration camp system in 1933 and 1934. The outlet states that it has reached out to the museum to enquire if the slogan “One of ours, all of yours” did in fact originate from that time, as Morello claims.
Morello isn’t the only famous face to hit out at the Trump administration following Good being fatally shot in Minneapolis. Mark Ruffalo also protested ICE at the Golden Globes and used his time on the red carpet to call Trump the “worst human being”.
Ruffalo was seen wearing a pin on his lapel inscribed with the words “BE GOOD” at this weekend’s ceremony, and told USA Today: “This is for Renee Nicole Good, who was murdered. We’re in the middle of a war with Venezuela that we illegally invaded. [Trump’s] telling the world that international law doesn’t matter to him.”
“The only thing that matters to him is his own morality, but the guy is a convicted felon,” he added. “He’s the worst human being. If we’re relying on this guy’s morality for the most powerful country in the world, then we’re all in a lot of trouble.”
Fellow attendee Wanda Sykes was also seen wearing a pin at the event, and told Variety: “We need to speak up, we need to be out there and shut this rogue government down.”
Before then, Billie Eilish re-shared a post that called ICE a “terrorist organisation” after the fatal shooting, and this prompted a response from the Government.
“Clearly, Billie Eilish has not seen the newly released footage, which corroborates what DHS has stated all along — that this individual was impeding law enforcement and weaponized her vehicle in an attempt to kill or cause bodily harm to federal law enforcement,” assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, per Billboard.
“The American people can watch this video with their own eyes and ears and judge for themselves.”
Morello has called out Trump numerous times in the past too, and recently teamed up with Beartooth vocalist Caleb Shomo for the politically charged Final Fantasy 14 anthem ‘Everything Burns’. The song features on Morello’s latest solo album, alongside Anti-ICE track ‘Pretend You Remember Me’ and ‘Soldier In The Army Of Love’, his collaboration with son Roman.
He then shared a “Fuck ICE” playlist over the summer, and was one of the many figures from the entertainment world who attended the anti-ICE protests last year.