Trump re-election rallies feature music that audiences love even if the songs clash with his message.
As we finally — finally! — hit the homestretch of the presidential campaign, we’re soon going to say goodbye to one of the most baffling things in politics right now: the Trump Rally Playlist — the music blared from giant speakers at the beginning and the end of each of President Donald Trump’s campaign events. I truly believe that there’s no better metaphor for the campaign or the man it’s being used to get re-elected. In a strange way, the campaign playlist may be the most on-the-nose part of a truly chaotic campaign. It’s a heady mix of misplaced nostalgia and infectious feel-good energy. And to the campaign’s credit, it works. It gets the people going. The crowds, for all their mean-spirited energy ready for Trump’s cue, are genuinely having a good time listening to it. The actual lyrics, words and themes that the songs are crafted around, they don’t matter. Like the diatribes the president launches during each rally’s set — his toxic, free-form jazz, spiked with seemingly random phrases and motifs, improvisational in its details but unified in its self-promotional foundation — it’s not about what’s said in these songs. It’s about the vibe they inspire. If you’re somehow unfamiliar with the oeuvre of the Make America Great Again (Again) rallies, fear not. The Trump campaign has uploaded the full list onto Spotify, so you can feel as though you’re surrounded by a crush of unmasked people in red hats or stranded 3 miles from your car, all from the comfort of your home. Scrolling through the playlist yields a collection of songs that to the untrained eye make absolutely no sense when lined up together. Everything you learned about making mixtapes from building the perfect flow of songs for your friends or your crush? Out the window here. In its place is an aural experience that wouldn’t be given a second thought at the most innocuous event you can imagine that would still have a DJ — your most straitlaced friend’s wedding, maybe, or a 40th-year high school reunion. And yet this list still manages to be chockablock with songs that are absolutely out of sync with the tenor, tone and message Trump wants to project. The most frequently mentioned song that fits this description — given its title alone — is the Rolling Stones’ « You Can’t Always Get What You Want. » It’s been a mainstay on Trump’s campaign trail for his entire political career, often played as a closer after he’s finished speaking. BuzzFeed News’ Katherine Miller, in a piece written shortly after the song followed Trump’s acceptance of the Republican nomination at the GOP convention in 2016, noted this affinity even then: « That song is a hallmark of the Trump rally — maybe a screw-you to conservatives, maybe just a song that Trump likes, or maybe just one he knows you like, since that’s what Trump’s playlist is all about.
