The White House has responded to the scathing new poem ‘Little Green Worm’, written by Joan Baez about President Donald Trump.
The iconic folk singer-songwriter wrote the poem earlier this year as a follow-up to her 2024 collection When You See My Mother, Ask Her To Dance, in direct response to the current administration’s ICE raids against immigrants.
Titled ‘Little Green Worm: A Note To The President’, it refers to Trump’s Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has claimed that a worm ate a portion of his brain before dying inside his head.
“Since you are so comfortable / Hiring people whose minds have / Been hollowed out by worms / I’ve been thinking about / A little green worm that has / Worked its way into / Your anterior insular cortex,” the poem begins.
Baez continues by suggesting that the worm has eroded the president’s ability to generate empathy or control his impulses. “What’s a little green worm to do / But munch on to the cerebrum / Which is the big one, responsible for thought / Language, memory, reasoning and learning / For all the functions that make up basic intelligence / But oh shit, there’s nothing there,” it concludes.
Now, the White House Communications Director Steven Cheung has responded to the piece, writing a curt reply in an email to The Independent: “Who is Joan Baez?”
Baez is no stranger to speaking out against Trump – earlier this year, she played a solo set and teamed up with Neil Young and Maggie Rogers for ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’ at Bernie Sanders’ Fighting Oligarchy rally in Los Angeles.
She also recently confirmed that despite speculation, she would not be playing an “alternative” to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show next year.
The Puerto Rican rapper has said that he will not tour the US as part of his upcoming tour due to fears over ICE agents raiding the shows, and his selection as the Super Bowl headline act has been met with resistance from some Trump supporters.
Meanwhile, Baez was portrayed on screen by an Oscar-nominated Monica Barbaro in the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown last year. Barbaro later revealed that Baez sent her a voicemail praising her performance. “I don’t want to reveal too much, it’s up to her to express her review if she wants to,” Barbaro said. “But she extended a wonderful kindness to me.”