The response was immediate. The track surged online, climbing to the top of YouTube’s trending chart and drawing millions of views within hours. Tuesday night was his first live performance of that song with the band which served as the night’s emotional center. He began alone at center stage, voice low, the arrangement spare, before the E Street Band surged in behind him. The audience of nearly 18,000 lifted their phones in the air, a constellation of light shimmering across the arena. At Springsteen’s cue, they shouted—“ICE out now!”—not once, not twice, not three times, but four, each repetition louder than the last, as if they were willing the words into reality. A quick glance around the venue revealed tearful eyes in every direction.
Midway through the show, Springsteen outlined his view of the sweep of Trump’s transgressions. He spoke of war in Iran with no constitutional authorization; of immigrants detained, deported, and sent to foreign gulags without due process; of a Justice Department that has abdicated its independence; of a takeover of cultural institutions to obscure uncomfortable historical truths; of an emerging oligarchy in which immense wealth has translated into political power and personal gain; of an erosion of sacred democratic norms.
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