Joan Baez shows support for Bruce Springsteen and says US is “turning into a shithole country”

Singer-songwriter Joan Baez has supported Bruce Springsteen amid his recent criticisms of President Donald Trump and also shared her damning opinion on the current state of the US under his leadership.

Throughout his ongoing European tour, Springsteen has been delivering a series of speeches at every concert on the run of dates, which began at Manchester’s Co-op Live on May 15th. He has since played more shows in Lille, Marseille and Liverpool, reiterating the strong message to those in attendance.

Far Out was at Springsteen’s show in Liverpool at Anfield on June 4th. Before playing ‘Land of Hopes and Dreams’, he told the stadium: “The America I’ve written about, and has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration.”

In recent weeks, Springsteen has received the support of a vast array of musical figures such as Eddie Vedder, Eric Chuch, and now, Joan Baez.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, she condemned Trump’s tactics since returning to the White House, stating, “In the first 100 days, sending people like that [snaps fingers] to prisons known for torture. All the work I did in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and the Eastern Bloc, and it’s the same mechanism, with all the ruthlessness and the steps to the dictatorship.”

Baez added: ’m worried about the speed at which they’re doing it and where they’re going, and the horrible cruelty that takes place every day. I really appreciated Bruce Springsteen repeating ‘It’s happening now‘. Because you tend to say, ‘Oh, it’s going to be a rough four years.’ No, it’s now.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Baez explained that the result of the most recent election “surprised the shit out of me”, adding, “Nobody could have predicted that it would turn into what it’s turned into, because that’s for other countries, the ‘shithole countries.’ This is turning into a shithole country because of them. It’s all the evil things that shithole countries do.”

The folk star also revealed that she realised Trump had won another term from the distraught look on her neighbour’s face, rather than from the news, admitting, “I knew it was a disaster. But the truth is it’s been in the works for 50 years. It’s not even about Trump. He just turned out to be this wizard of a disgusting human being who gives people the right to do what he does.”

Baez’s latest comments come after she performed at a rally in support of politicians Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in April, joining forces with Neil Young and Maggie Rogers to perform ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’.