The White House has responded to Zach Bryan hitting out at ICE on an unreleased song – see what President Donald Trump‘s administration had to say.
Bryan made headlines over the weekend when he shared a snippet of an unreleased track on social media, captioned “The fading of the red, white and blue”. In the snippet, Bryan hits out at the ongoing wave of ICE deportations: “I heard the cops came / Cocky motherfuckers, ain’t they / And ICE is gonna come bust down your door / Try to build a house no one builds no more / But I got a telephone / Kids are all scared and all alone.”
Check out the snippet below.
In a statement to Newsweek, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said of the track while referencing other Zach Bryan hits: “While Zach Bryan wants to Open The Gates to criminal illegal aliens and has Condemned heroic ICE officers, Something in the Orange tells me a majority of Americans disagree with him and support President Trump’s great American Revival. Godspeed, Zach!”
Meanwhile, in a statement to TMZ, Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary of Public Affairs told Bryan to “Stick to ‘Pink Skies'”, referring to the singer’s famous tune where he sings about children who are proud of how they were raised in America.
Bryan has since taken to his Instagram stories to clarify his stance on the snippet he posted: “I wrote this song months ago. I posted this song three months ago as a snippet. This shows you how divisive a narrative can be when shoved down our throats through social media. This song is about how much I love this country and everyone in it more than anything.”
“When you hear the rest of the song, you will understand the full context that hits on both sides of the isle,” he continued. “Everyone using this now as a weapon is only proving how devastatingly divided we all are. We need to find out way back. I served this country, I love this country and the song itself is about all of us coming out of this divided space.”
“I wasn’t speaking as a politician or some greater-than-thou asshole, just a 29 year old man who is just as confused as everyone else. To see how much shit it stirred up makes me not only embarrassed but kind of scared. Left wing or right wing we’re all one bird and American. To be clear, I’m on neither of these radical sides. To all those disappointed in me on either side of whatever you believe in, just know I’m trying my best too and we all say things that are misconstrued sometimes.”
He added in a secondary story: “I am SO proud to have served in a country where we can all speak freely and converse amongst each other without getting doxxed or accosted on the internet or worse; the violence and heartbreak we’ve faced in the last few months.”
Immigration raids through ICE since convicted felon Donald Trump became president for the second time have soared in the US with the agency aiming for 3,000 minimum arrests a day since May.
Per a New York Times article published at the time, ICE investigators estimated that Puerto Rico was housing around 20,000 illegal immigrants – 500 of whom had been arrested. It is also estimated that 75 per cent of the arrests were made on Dominican Republic nationals.
Among the numerous artists who have spoken out against the ICE raids – which includes Olivia Rodrigo, Addison Rae and Shakira – is Bad Bunny, who previously witnessed an ICE raid in Puerto Rico in June. Following the raid he witnessed, Bad Bunny declared that his current world tour would not hit the United States as he was afraid of ICE agents raiding his shows and affecting the audience and their lives.
Bad Bunny has since been announced to headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show next year, which will mark his only US date of the year. Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski and US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem have since confirmed that ICE agents will be present at the Super Bowl and that illegal immigrants will not be safe.