Musician Jack White, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the duo The White Stripes, ripped into President Donald Trump for "dismantling democracy" after White House Communications Director Steven Cheung called him a "has-been loser" for criticizing Trump's "vulgar" Oval Office decor.
White had previously criticized the Oval Office’s new gold decor, which was on display during Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
At the time, he wrote:
"Look at how disgusting trump has transformed the historic White House. It's now a vulgar, gold leafed and gaudy, professional wrestler's dressing room. Can't wait for the UFC match on the front lawn too, he's almost fully achieved the movie 'Idiocracy'."
"Look at his disgusting taste, would you even buy a used car from this conman, let alone give him the nuclear codes? A gold plated trump bible would look perfect up on that mantle with a pair of trump shoes on either side wouldn't it?"
"What an embarrassment to American history. Also pictured in this photograph, a REAL leader of a nation in a black suit."
You can see his post below.
Cheung later issued the following response to White in a statement to The Daily Beast:
"Jack White is a washed up, has-been loser posting drivel on social media because he clearly has ample time on his hands due to his stalled career."
"It’s apparent he’s been masquerading as a real artist, because he fails to appreciate, and quite frankly disrespects, the splendor and significance of the Oval Office inside of 'The People’s House'."
White responded with the following statement on Instagram in which he said, in part:
"'Masquerading as a real artist'? Thank you for giving me my tombstone engraving! I have 'ample time on (my) hands'? That orange grifter has spent more tax payer money cheating at golf than helping ANYONE in the country. Improve. Anything."
“How funny that it wasn’t me calling out Trump’s blatant fascist manipulation of government, his gestapo ICE tactics, his racist remarks about Latinos, Native Americans, etc."
White also criticized Trump’s “ignorance of the dying children in Sudan, Gaza, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” as well as what he described as his lack of empathy for military veterans and people living in poverty before adding:
"Here's my opinion, trump is masquerading as a human being. He's masquerading as a christian, as a leader, as a person with actual empathy. He's been masquerading as a businessman for decades as nothing he's involved in has prospered except by using other people's money to find loophole after loophole and grift after grift."
"His staff of professional liar toadies like Steven Cheung and Karoline Leavitt have been covering up and masking his fascism as patriotism and fomenting hatred and division in this country on a regular basis. And I have 'ample time on (my) hands'? That orange grifter has spent more taxpayer money cheating at golf than helping anyone in the country. Improve. Anything."
"There is no progress with him, only smoke and mirrors and tax breaks for the ultra wealthy. So MAGA folk, enjoy your paving over your rose garden, your 200 million dollar ballroom in the White House, and your gaudy ass gold spray painted trinkets from Home Depot, cause he ain’t spending any money on helping YOU unless you fit into his white supremacist country club rich idiot agenda.”
"Wow, he hates who you hate...good for you, be proud of yourselves, how christian of you all."
He added:
"The only way you can support this conman is because you are a victim of the 2 party system and you 'defend your guy no matter what he does.' No intelligent person can defend this low life fascist. This bankrupter of casinos. This failed seller of trump steaks, trump vodka, trump water, etc."
"This man and his goon squad have failed upwards for decades and have fleeced the American people over and over. This professional golf cheat, this grifter who has hundreds of thousands of deaths from his inaction on the pandemic on his hands, this man that the majority of the country somehow were fooled into supporting and voting into office (through the flawed electoral college) and their love of reality television stars."
Being insulted by the actual White House that this particular conman leads is a badge of honor to me, because anyone who Trump supports and likes is a villain who gives nothing to their fellow man, only takes what can benefit themselves"
"And no I’m not a Democrat either, I’m a human being raised in Detroit, I’m an artist who’s owned his own businesses like his own upholstery shop and recording label since he was 21 years old, who has enough street sense to know when a 3 card monte dealer is a cheap grifter and a thief.”
You can see his post below.
Many echoed White's criticisms and praised him for speaking out.
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Last year, White called out Trump's campaign for using his music, telling campaign official Margo Martin to expect a lawsuit for using his song "Seven Nation Army" in a since-deleted video on social media.
White also issued "a double f**k you DonOLD for insulting our nation's veterans at Arlington you scum," referencing reports that two of Trump's staffers "verbally abused and pushed" an Arlington National Cemetery official who attempted to stop them from filming in an area with recent U.S. military casualties.
White, who responded just two month's shy of Trump's November election win, said Trump "should lose every military family's vote immediately from that if ANYTHING makes sense anymore."