- Music
- 30 Apr 18
A social media campaign to get Green Day's seminal track 'American Idiot' to UK number one during President Trump's State visit has continued to gather traction.
A Facebook group called "Get American Idiot to No.1 for Trump's State Visit" was set up back in January and since then has attracted almost 13 and a half thousand supporters. Their goal is to download, purchase and stream American Idiot, off Green Day's seventh studio album, enough so as to have it place number one on the UK charts during the US President's state visit to the UK. It has been confirmed that President Trump will arrive in the UK on July 13, following a NATO summit in Belgium.
A Q+A from the moderators of the Facebook group read in part, "So you're trying to tell us that using this as a peaceful protest against a racist, misogynist, pussy-grabbing, elitist, healthcare-destroying, climate change-denying, bullshitting, backward, orange shitgibbon of an excuse for a man is not ok then? Hmmm...righty oh... you do realise when our weak Prime Minister offered him a full state visit there were over 1.8 MILLION signatures against this within days...so we'd say we're in the right here."
American Idiot was originally written as a protest against then-President George W Bush and his administration. Green Day, made up of frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool, have long since been known as politically minded and outspoken. Armstrong himself has criticised Trump in the past, calling him "sick and unfit for office".
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This campaign is the latest in a run of attempts to force certain tracks into number one slot - most famously the successful campaign for Rage Against the Machine's 'Killing in the Name of' to take Christmas number one from X Factor winner Joe McElderry.