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Green Day star Billie Joe Armstrong took a savage swipe at Donald Trump during his band’s headline performance at Download Festival in Donington on Friday, June 13. The punk rock icon took to the stage with bandmates Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool to appear at the festival for the first time in their almost 40 year career and wasted no time in making his feelings known. Early into their set, he told the crowd: “Donald Trump and his administration is a fascist government and it’s up to us to fight back.”
His remarks were met with cheers from the crowd and he continued to show his disdain for the US President later in the show. The 53-year-old recalled in the 90s people used to chant “you fat b******”. He encouraged the crowd to chant the phrase and then asked them to bring it down. “Now for Donald Trump. I want everyone to say ‘you fat b******’.” The crowd enthusiastically played along as Billie Joe gave them a thumbs up and applauded them.
The rocker’s comments came a day before Trump presided over a military parade in Washington, D.C. to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, whilst also coinciding with his 79th birthday.
It is not the first time Armstrong has been publicly vocal about his feelings towards the Trump administration.
On March 1, while performing the band’s 2004 hit American Idiot at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium, he said: “Don’t want politicians to shut the f*** up? Don’t you want Elon Musk to shut the f*** up?”
As the crowd cheered he paused before adding, “Don’t you want Donald Trump to shut the f *** up?”
Just a week before his Download performance, he took to his Instagram stories to send a message of solidarity to protesters in Los Angeles, who took to the streets to rally against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in the city.
The protests were also fuelled by the president’s decision to deploy the National Guard to L.A. despite the mayor, and Gov. Gavin Newson’s objections.
On June 8 he shared a video of the protests from downtown L.A. and captioned it with a middle-finger emoji and an ice cube.
He set it to a live version of the groups song F*** Off, from the 2025 deluxe version of Green Day’s 2024 album Saviors.
