Green Day is once again taking aim at the administration of President Donald Trump.
The Grammy-winning punk band has long spoken truth to power and famously slammed then-President George W. Bush with its 2004 album “American Idiot,” but the group has often changed its lyrics onstage to diss Trump — and is now targeting his vice president.
Green Day performed “Jesus of Suburbia” from its Bush-era album in Melbourne, Australia, over the weekend, only for lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong to swap his original lyrics, “Am I retarded or just overjoyed?” for “Am I retarded or am I just JD Vance?”
As evident by crowd footage shared on social media, the ableist slur wasn’t registered as such by an audience of thousands who may have deemed its offensive nature less egregious than Vance’s actions, including the vice president’s public scolding of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy was set to sign an agreement with Trump last week regarding access to Ukrainian rare minerals, likely hoping it would engender continued U.S. support against Russia, only for Vance to scold Zelenskyy for not “thanking” Trump enough — a reprimand the president echoed.
Green Day also once again slammed Elon Musk during its Melbourne concert, as the tech billionaire who helped elect Trump to another term is currently dismantling federal agencies from his role with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency in a purported aim to slash wasteful public spending.
“Don’t you want Elon Musk to shut the fuck up?” Armstrong asked the crowd to audible cheers in footage shared on social media. “Don’t you want Donald Trump to shut the fuck up? Nah, nah, nah, I’m not going to get angry. Fuck that shit.”
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While some group leads soften with age, Armstrong has arguably only grown more outspoken over the years — and notably draped a Palestinian flag over his shoulder during a concert last month to signal his support for the besieged population of Gaza.
Armstrong has also frequently changed the lyrics to the “American Idiot” title track from “I’m not a part of the redneck agenda,” which referred to Bush’s disastrous war on terror at the time, to “I’m not part of a MAGA agenda” — in clear-cut opposition to Trump.
He ultimately sang that line in Melbourne, too, revealing no intentions of letting up.