Neil Young confronts Donald Trump in new song Big Crime: ‘Don’t want soldiers on the streets’

“There’s big crime in DC at the White House,” Young sings, referring to Trump’s past legal cases and his recent declaration of a “crime emergency” in Washington DC.

The chorus continues, “Don’t need no fascist rules / don’t want no fascist schools / don’t want soldiers walking on the streets. Got to get the fascists out / got to clean the White House out … no more money to the fascists, the billionaire fascists.”

Riffing on Trump’s campaign slogan, Young adds: “No more great again.”

Earlier this month, Trump declared a “crime emergency” in Washington DC, took control of the city’s police force and deployed the national guard. He said the decision was aimed at stopping rising crime. However, The Guardian notes that in January, local police and prosecutors had reported crime was at its lowest level in 30 years.

Young has previously clashed with Trump over music use at campaign rallies. Trump played Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World at his 2015 campaign launch and later used other songs at rallies. Young opposed the use, saying in a lawsuit that he could not allow his music to support what he called “a divisive, un-American campaign of ignorance and hate”. The case was later withdrawn.

In 2020, Young reworked his 2006 track Lookin’ for a Leader to include references to Trump, saying at the time: “America has a leader building walls around our house / Who don’t know Black lives matter and we got to vote him out.”

The original version of that song had been directed at then-president George W Bush.

Young, who holds both US and Canadian citizenship, has said this year he worries his criticism of Trump could affect his ability to return to the US after travelling abroad. On his website, he wrote: “When I go to play music in Europe, if I talk about Donald J Trump, I may be one of those returning to America who is barred or put in jail to sleep on a cement floor with an aluminium blanket.”