In a lengthy video message recorded Friday on Dave Matthews' birthday and posted by the Dave Matthews Band’s official social media accounts, the singer and songwriter began by expressing his gratitude for his community and neighbors in his chosen home, the United States, where he has lived since 1986.
Throughout his childhood, his family moved between South Africa, England, and the United States, but Matthews chose to make the U.S. his home and became a naturalized citizen in 1980.
He opened his message saying:
"I think about how lucky I’ve been in my life, here in this land. And so, then I think about the way I repay it, and the way I repay it is with taxes. They can raise my taxes, as far as I’m concerned."
Matthews then added:
"But—big but, big juicy but—that’s if they spend my taxes on bridges and the national parks and maintaining the highways, the libraries, raising the minimum wage, paying nurses, free university for people who can’t afford it, free healthcare, things that are reasonable. School lunches for god’s sakes."
You can see his post here:
Calling the Trump administration "entitled and revolting," the Dave Matthews Band frontman continued:
"I don’t want my taxes to go toward invading foreign countries over false premises, kidnapping presidents to steal their natural resources and threatening to do it to other countries, claiming somehow sovereign nations belong to us."
"I don’t want my taxes to pay for ICE, to masked thugs to roam our streets and terrorize our communities and rip families apart. We should be taking care of each other. We should be minding each other. We should be housing the homeless. We shouldn’t be, you know, throwing people to the ground."
Matthews then called out Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's response to the murder of Renee Nicole Good.
He stated:
"Which brings me to Renee Nicole Good. Murdered in front of her fellow citizens in Minneapolis, murdered in the streets. And no matter what narrative this administration is trying to sell us, we can see the videos."
"Maybe if they show you one and they slow it down and they tell you where to look, you might think, maybe there’s a chance, maybe there’s a chance that the gunman was felt threatened. But from most angles, near and far, it looks like she was trying to get away, and he shot her three times in the head, murdered in cold blood."
"This administration, these people who are trying to tell us not to believe what we see. It is so horrific. I don’t understand how you can claim that [Good] was ramming their cars, or that she was attacking them. There’s nothing to suggest that. And it’s mind-boggling and it’s deeply upsetting. To me and to so many people, and we can’t just let it slide."
Regarding Trump, Noem, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, Matthews called them "just deeply, deeply dishonest people."
He added they were:
"Cowardly, shameful. F*ck them. They are revolting."
"These are dark times. F*ck ICE."
Matthews' comments were filled with birthday wishes, similar thoughts on the Trump administration, and gratitude for the singer's message.
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Matthews concluded his message:
"I don’t like these monsters that are running the show right now. They are ungrateful, greedy monsters. I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit."
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