Donald Trump criticized for playing We Are The Champions by Queen
It’s no surprise that Donald Trump raised some eyebrows during the first night of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, but this time, it’s not for something he said. Instead, it’s for his choice of music.
At the Quicken Loans Arena on Monday, the presumptive Republican nominee for president walked on stage — through a blue-hued haze of what appeared to be concert-style theatrical smoke — as Queen’s anthem “We Are The Champions” played throughout the venue.
Trump applauded during his entrance, but the reaction on social media has been decidedly mixed.
“My guess is that Freddie Mercury would not likely have been a Trump supporter,” Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post tweeted.
Mercury, the late Queen frontman, was gay; the official Republican party platform condemns the Supreme Court’s ruling that states must observe same-sex marriages as legitimate.
Queen member Brian May said in June that permission to use “We Are The Champions” at a Trump campaign event “was neither sought nor given.” May added that it “has always been against our policy” for political campaigns to use Queen’s music. The 69-year-old guitarist wrote back to a fan at the time and assured he “will make sure we take what steps we can to dissociate ourselves from Donald Trump’s unsavoury campaign.”
Here’s a sampling of reactions on Twitter: