Contemptuous and sure of himself, the US president boasted of his victories and taunted his enemies

God save the king. Drunk on power, Donald Trump spent Saturday afternoon before adoring fans, boasting of his victories, taunting his enemies and casting himself as America’s absolute monarch, supreme leader and divine emperor rolled into one.

Trump’s appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the National Harbor in Maryland began with country singer Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA and raucous cheers in a crowded ballroom that included January 6 insurrectionists.

Seventy-five minutes later, it concluded with the US president standing between two stars-and-stripes flags, pumping his fists and swaying to the Village People’s anthem YMCA.

What emerged in between was a man who has never felt so sure of himself, so contemptuous of his foes and so convinced of his righteous mission to make America great again, even if it means breaking china, cracking skulls and leaving global destruction in his wake.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    24·
    7 hours ago

    Donald Trump

    swaying to the Village People’s anthem YMCA.

    Wait…what now? I don’t listen to them and am pretty out-of-touch with music/fan-identity stuff, but aren’t the Village People a gay-themed thing?

    kagis

    Huh. Apparently so. Not just me who is puzzled.

    https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/01/20/village-people-gay-trump/

    Just what, exactly, is going on with Village People? And why are they performing at Trump events?

    The decision to perform at Trump’s inauguration incurred the wrath of fans, especially as “Y.M.C.A” and other songs by the band have been embraced as queer anthems.

    One angry fan wrote on X: “What a f**king, ungrateful, pathetic sellout! If it wasn’t for the LGBTQ community, the Village People wouldn’t have gained such popularity and “YMCA” wouldn’t have become such a mega hit.”

    “No surprise that this guy happens to be the ONLY original group member who WASN’T gay,” they continued, referring to Willis.

    Another said: “You would think that as a band founded and focused around queer culture, you’d have a little more respect for queer people. Not to mention a backbone, for yourself.”

    To understand what’s currently going on with Village People, and how they ended up performing for a President-elect famous for his “grim” anti-LGBTQ+ views, it’s helpful to look at where they came from.

    https://www.out.com/gay-music/village-people-trump-inauguration-explained

    Jim Newman, a former member of the band for eight years, put out a video on Threads expressing his disappointment at the current version of the Village People.

    “The Village People that were around for about 40 years had a strong, loyal gay following,” he said. “There was a lawsuit about four years ago, they took away the name Village People from our band, the band that had been around forever, a lot of originals still in the band, and they gave it to an ex-member who was fired a couple years in. And he started a new group, and that is the Village People that performs. Or Village People would never ever perform at a Trump rally, we would never give him the right to use those songs, and we would never slap the face of the strong, especially gay audience that made us who we are today.”