Who the Hell is Choosing Trump’s Rally Music?

Andy Ostroy
3 min readSep 7, 2020

Conventional wisdom states that music chosen for candidates’ political rallies should reflect a message that’s consistent with the campaign’s overall message and identity.

Barack Obama’s rally songs included Jackie Wilson’s “Higher and Higher” (2008) and Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising” (2012). Hillary Clinton’s 2016 choices included “Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song” and Sare Bareilles’s “Brave”.

This year’s tunes included John Lennon’s “Power to The People”, Bernie Sanders; Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5”, Elizabeth Warren; Mary J. Blige’s “Work That”, Kamala Harris; and Jake Sinclair and Jonas Jeberg’s “High Hopes”, Pete Buttigieg.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s kept the Obama theme going with “Higher and Higher” and also chose Springsteen’s “We Take Care of Our Own”.

Notice the themes of these song choices: love, courage, strength, freedom, hope, inspiration, empowerment, equality.

But whoever is choosing Donald Trump’s rally music is clearly not paying attention to lyrics and titles. It’s as if the stable genius himself hears a melody he likes, barks “play THAT one!” to his minions, and the Emperer’s New Music game begins…

“Who’s gonna tell him?”

“Well, I’m not gonna tell him”

“Neither am I. Just play the damn song…”

Trump’s songs represent the polar opposite of the messaging he should be projecting. They show his true character. His true feelings. His darkest side.

So let’s analyze some of these rally song choices and the Trump personality traits and flaws their inappropriate lyrics and titles highlight:

“Brown Sugar” (Rolling Stones) — how he truly views black (and young) women:

Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in the market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver knows he’s doin’ all right
Hear him whip the women just around midnight

Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good
Brown Sugar, just like a young girl should

“It’s All Over Now” (Rolling Stones) — his true opinion of Melania and their future divorce:

Andy Ostroy

Director, producer, podcaster, writer, resistor, non-profit-supporter of women filmmakers