Topline
A portion of a song by controversial singer-songwriter Zach Bryan is raising eyebrows on social media and being praised by Trump administration critics after the artist posted a minute-long teaser that made reference to raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the “fading of the red, white and blue.”
Zach Bryan performs during the Quittin Time tour at Nissan Stadium on June 29, 2024 in Nashville.
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Key Facts
Bryan, most famous for his moody tunes “Something In The Orange” and “I Remember Everything,” recently posted a one-minute audio clip of an unreleased song called “Bad News” that appears to take aim at the tactics used by ICE under President Donald Trump, singing that the agency is “gonna come bust down your door.”
The song goes on to say “kids are scared and all alone” and references changes happening in America, including a nod to his mentor and Trump critic Bruce Springsteen (“The Boss stopped bumping/the rock stopped rolling.”)
Bryan, a U.S. Navy veteran, then references rising tensions (“The middle fingers rising and it won’t stop showing”) before naming the “bad news” referenced in the song’s title as “the fading of the red, white and blue.”
Bryan’s stance is being seen as surprisingly liberal for a modern-day country music star and the song has spread widely on TikTok in videos that have racked up millions of views and drawn thousands of comments, largely from fans supporting his apparent criticism of ICE.
Before teasing “Bad News,” Bryan insisted his music is not political and described himself as a libertarian.
Bryan hasn’t announced a release date for a full-length version of “Bad News.
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Crucial Quote
“The more a person includes politics into their life anywhere besides a ballot the more I figure they don’t have anything more interesting to do or say,” Bryan said in a since-deleted post on X last year.
Chief Critic
John Rich, one-half of the country music duo Big and Rich, appeared to be the first star to lash out at Bryan after he teased the new song. “Who’s ready for the Zach Bryan-Dixie Chicks tour? Prob a huge Bud Light sponsorship for this one,” he tweeted. The post referenced the fallout felt by the Dixie Chicks band, now known as The Chicks, after the group criticized George W. Bush in 2003 and the boycott of the Bud Light brand after it partnered with transgender content creator Dylan Mulvaney in 2023. He also posted “Nashville is full of guys like this” about Bryan, months after saying the town had been “overrun for the past 15 years by liberals from other states… Like locusts.”
What To Watch For
If the song draws more ire from the right. Musicians who have spoken out against the Trump administration in recent years have drawn backlash from MAGA supporters. In May, musician Neil Young released a new song criticizing Elon Musk and was called a “bitter old liberal.” Last year, the band Green Day updated a lyric in its 2004 song “American Idiot” to say “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda” and was slammed by Fox News commentators.
Further Reading
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2025/10/06/what-to-know-about-zach-bryans-new-song-bad-news-and-what-it-says-about-ice/
