Donald Trump has finally spoken out in defense of his friend Jason Aldean and the country music star’s incendiary video, “Try That In a Small Town,” two days after Country Music Television pulled the video from its rotation.
The 45th president said on his Truth Social account late Wednesday, “Jason Aldean is a fantastic guy who just came out with a great new song. Support Jason all the way. MAGA!!!”
By joining the chorus of Aldean’s right-wing supporters and by invoking his MAGA catchphrase, Trump will no doubt raise the outrage level in the latest clash in America’s culture wars. Trump’s message comes as the former reality TV star is running for president again in 2024 and, as he revealed on Tuesday, that he may be indicted in a third case — this one involving his alleged efforts to illegally overturn the 2020 election.
Actually, it’s possible that Trump didn’t speak out sooner in support of Aldean because he has been preoccupied with going on Truth Social to rail against “deranged” special counsel Jack Smith, “crooked” Joe Biden and the “Injustice” Department for leading a “witch hunt” to indict and arrest him, NBC News reported. Trump also appeared in a Fox News town hall Tuesday with Sean Hannity to insist that the many multiple investigations against him are politically motivated and amount to “election interference.”
Before Trump chimed in on Aldean’s video late Wednesday, other right-wing figures, including Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., expressed their displeasure with CMT. In a message to his 10 million Twitter followers, Trump Jr. asked, “How on earth is this video controversial? Why would @cmt take it down? Support @jasonaldean and other artists who have the guts to tell the truth … watch it, download it and push back against the bs.”
The video for the song features the multiple Grammy nominee performing in front of an American flag-draped Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee — the site of the 1946 Columbia race riot and the 1927 mob lynching of an 18-year-old Black teenager named Henry Choate, the Washington Post reported. The video also shows footage of carjackings, of cars and American flags being set on fire and of protesters taunting police.
The lyrics of the song itself describe confrontations with those who would “carjack an old lady at a red light” or “pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store” or “cuss out a cop.” The lyrics say: “Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day they’re gonna round up / Well, that (expletive) might fly in the city, good luck / Try that in a small town.”
The video, which was released last week after the song was originally released in May, has provoked fervent criticism online. Some argue that its visuals are a “dog whistle,” and others say that the video and the song’s lyrics are “pro-lynching,” the New York Times reported.
State Representative Justin Jones of Tennessee, a Democrat, condemned the song on Twitter, describing it as a “heinous song calling for racist violence” that promoted “a shameful vision of gun extremism and vigilantism,” the New York Times reported.
Singer Sheryl Crow also chastised Aldean on Twitter. “There’s nothing small-town or American about promoting violence. You should know that better than anyone having survived a mass shooting,” she said, referring to Aldean being onstage during the Route 91 Harvest Festival in 2017 when a gunman opened fire on the crowd from a hotel room, causing the deaths of some 60 people.
Aldean responded to the controversy Tuesday with a lengthy post that slammed critics, who accused him of releasing a video that’s “pro-lynching” or that shows his displeasure with nationwide Black Lives Matters protests.
“These references are not only meritless, but dangerous,” he wrote on Twitter. “There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it — and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage — and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music — this one goes too far.”
“‘Try That In A Small Town,’ for me, refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief,” Aldean also said.
As Aldean also mentioned in his post, his political views are something he’s never “hidden from.” Aldean has long identified as conservative, and he has been a vocal supporter of Trump. He and his wife, Brittany, have been honored guests at Trump’s New Year’s Eve parties at Mar-a-Lago in recent years. For the most recent New Year’s Eve celebration, Brittany Aldean posted photos of herself and her husband posing with Donald and Melania Trump. “Dream night,” Brittany Aldean captioned the photos.
Jason Aldean and Brittany Aldean Ring In New Year With Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago Party: ‘Dream Night’ https://t.co/3pdFBjbr5D
— 103.7 the Gator (@1037TheGator) January 1, 2023
Aldean also performed for Trump’s guests, Country Now reported. When Trump took to the stage to introduce Aldean, the ex-president praised the singer as “a fine golfer but he’s much better with the guitar.”
Trump furthermore hailed Aldean as the No. 1 country star, which has become true in certain ways amid the controversy over “Try That In a Small Town.” On Truth Social, Aldean fans expressed delighted that the song was No. 1 on iTunes Thursday morning. In a further sign that CMT’s decision regarding the video has sparked a new culture clash, Aldean fans were pushing a social media campaign to boycott CMT, in the same way they supported boycotts this spring against Bud Light for using transgender actor and influencer Dylan Mulvaney in a promotional campaign.
“Just an opinion: CMT murdered their own brand because a bunch of elite leftists who don’t even like or listen to country music complained about Jason Aldean’s music video,” one person wrote.
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