A song that played as President Donald Trump toured a Phoenix mask factory is raising eyebrows, not only for its lyrical content, but also for the fact that the song’s performer is an outspoken Trump critic, the L.A. Times reports.
As previously reported at the time by The Inquisitr , on Tuesday Trump toured a Phoenix Honeywell factory that produces N95 masks, the type of personal protective equipment that has been in critically short supply since the coronavirus pandemic erupted.
As he toured the building, he was accompanied by a soundtrack and one song in particular stood out — Guns & Roses’ 1991 cover of Paul McCartney’s 1973 song, “Live and Let Die.”
The song choice has raised some eyebrows, particularly in light of the fact that more than one Republican has suggested people should be allowed to die as a tradeoff for getting the economy restarted. For example, the lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, is on the record as saying that “there are more important things than living,” in the context of getting the Lone Star State’s economy up and running again.
Trump, for his part, has also been accused of being in too big of a hurry to open up the economy again in light of speculation that doing so too soon could drastically raise the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic.
Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel expressed his thoughts on the juxtaposition of the song choice and the eagerness to reopen the economy in a tweet.
“I can think of no better metaphor for this presidency than Donald Trump not wearing a face mask to a face mask factory while the song ‘Live and Let Die’ blares in the background,” he wrote.
Beyond the fact that the title of the song is itself eyebrow-raising in the context in which it was played, there’s also the matter that two key people associated with it — writer Paul McCartney and performer Axl Rose — are not fans of the president.
As of this writing, Rose hasn’t commented on the issue, but he has been an outspoken critic of Trump, at one time calling him “the gold standard of what can be considered disgraceful.”
— Axl Rose (@axlrose) February 10, 2020
McCartney, similarly, has likened Trump to the captain of a ship sailing directly towards an iceberg, as a metaphor for his purported refusal to act on or even admit climate change, BBC News reports.
As Rolling Stone wrote in 2015, the question remains unsettled as to whether or not politicians can use a musician’s song without permission at rallies or other public events.
