U.S. President Donald Trump went on a bizarre rant at the White House yesterday, selectively quoting from Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s damning testimony about Trump’s crimes. Countless people have pointed out that Trump’s handwritten notes from the rant looked like lyrics to a song, inspiring some people on Twitter to put those words to music. And surprisingly, the songs are actually pretty good.
Needless to say, music that’s inspired by mainstream politics is usually very, very bad. And user-created parody songs about politicians are often unbearable. But these songs from Trump’s words, created by three talented musicians, are actually executed perfectly. Completely devoid of context, the songs make about as much sense as anything our senile president was trying to say yesterday.
Twitter user Alex Kliment created a song inspired by 1970s punk band The Ramones. Kliment even matched up his new song to Trump’s mouth movements, making the 22-second bit truly inspired.
somebody on twitter today: trump’s weird hand-scrawled denial today sounds like a ramones song.
me: pic.twitter.com/mynZjx0E0M
— Alex Kliment (@SaoSasha) November 21, 2019
Twitter user Nick Lutsko created an emo version of Trump’s rant that would surely make Dashboard Confessional jealous. And just like the Ramones version, Trump’s perfectly matched lip-syncing in the video really makes the entire effort that much more impressive.
Emo Trump recites poem on White House lawn pic.twitter.com/rAD3xRjX4L
— Nick Lutsko (@NickLutsko) November 20, 2019
And artist Panda Plane created a version of Trump’s words that was inspired by ageing rocker Morrissey, the former frontman of The Smiths. And while there’s no video of Trump lip syncing in this one, it’s still a pitch-perfect parody of Morrissey’s trademark whining.
Inspired by @pattonoswalt , here’s Trump’s notes as if Morrissey wrote them into song, performed by me pic.twitter.com/Emka5wVwzM
— Appa the Flying ????ison (@victoryrhoad) November 20, 2019
Given everything we know about Morrissey and his far right, racist politics, this last homage actually feels the most appropriate. Trump would be so proud, though we have to assume the president is more of a Wilhelm Richard Wagner guy.
Twitter users have pointed out other famous musicians who could have written these lyrics, including Kurt Cobain, Car Seat Headrest and Linkin Park, among plenty of others. But we haven’t seen any musicians attempt to emulate those styles yet.