As Trump taunts Springsteen, these Republicans stick with 'The Boss'

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Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, an ally-turned-critic of President Donald Trump, says he recently reached out to another target of the president’s ire: rock legend Bruce Springsteen.

Springsteen opened his European tour by calling Trump “unfit.” The president fired back, dismissing The Boss as a “dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker.” As a regular Trump punching bag, Christie could relate.

Christie “fell in love” with Springsteen and his music when he first saw him perform some 50 years ago – and loyalty to party or president won’t change that. “The politics, if I take some hits – and I do take some hits – that’s fine,” he said.

Christie is far from the only Republican standing with Springsteen, with several Republican operatives saying the rocker’s music is bigger than politics – even if that means they have to compartmentalize a bit.

“I don’t think it matters that he is a liberal,” said Chris Pack, a longtime Republican operative whose office wall has images of Republicans such as former speaker John A. Boehner and former president George W. Bush alongside the framed lyrics to Springsteen’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town.”

“These amazing life lessons aren’t Democratic or Republican lessons. They’re just lessons,” said Pack, who described Springsteen’s music as a soundtrack to his life, with “Darkness on the Edge of Town” inspiring him to leave state politics in New York and take a shot at national politics in D.C. “I can compartmentalize his politics. … I get that politics is a full-contact sport, but you have to be able to turn that off.”

Pack is just one of the fervent Springsteen devotees who work in Republican politics. They exchange messages in Springsteen-focused group chats, endure ribbing from colleagues (especially now) and try to convert the skeptics.

For Mike Marinella, a spokesperson at the National Republican Congressional Committee who was born and raised in Springsteen’s hometown of Freehold, New Jersey, the artist is a hero. But Marinella is clear that his Springsteen love is just about the music.

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“Freehold loves Bruce for the art, not the politics,” said Marinella, whose uncle bought the music store where Springsteen bought his first guitar. The Republican operative even remembers making a pizza for Springsteen during his high school job at Federici’s Family Restaurant – immortalized by a signed take-out menu that now hangs on Marinella’s office wall. “He is a hometown hero, even if we don’t always agree with what he says.”

Pack and Marinella exemplify Republicans whose love of Springsteen is bigger than politics, conspicuous in a world where everything – sports, music, movies, arts – is political.

Springsteen’s politics are no secret: He has endorsed every Democratic nominee since 2004.

But the rift with Trump, someone known to disown Republicans who buck him by supporting his opponents, has made the relationship between the Republican political class and Springsteen more challenging.

Not a single member of New Jersey’s congressional delegation responded when asked about Trump’s feud with the Jersey icon, nor did the three top Republicans running to be the party’s gubernatorial nominee.

And when Pack spoke of a “ton” of Republican Springsteen fans in Washington, he declined to provide names. “I don’t want to out people,” he said with a laugh.

Christie, whose relationship with Springsteen has gone through rough patches, questioned New Jersey Republicans declining to back Springsteen. “What the public wants from their politicians more than anything else is authenticity, and so it is not only weak personally, but it is also stupid politically, to act as if you don’t have an opinion,” he said, noting that Springsteen is arguably the greatest entertainer from the state, alongside Frank Sinatra. “If you are a New Jersey person and you are trying to claim you don’t have an opinion on this, people know that you are full of it,” he added.

Phil Murphy, the New Jersey Democrat who succeeded Christie as governor, agreed.

“Bruce Springsteen is a Jersey – and American – icon,” said Murphy. “If you want to win an election in this state, you don’t criticize The Boss.”

A representative for Springsteen declined to respond to questions when asked about the artist’s rift with Trump and exchanges with Christie.

Springsteen’s music has long been intertwined with politics, most notably during the 1984 presidential election when President Ronald Reagan invoked Springsteen, whose “Born in the USA” was topping the charts, to say his Republican agenda was “all about” trying to “make those dreams come true.” Springsteen disagreed and let it be known days later. Politicians including Reagan and other right-wing commentators at the time treated “Born in the USA” as a patriotic anthem – in reality, it is an anti-war protest song that tells the story of a Vietnam veteran unable to find his way in the country.

“Anyone who is surprised by Springsteen’s position on the current administration … isn’t maybe the truest Springsteen fan they think they are,” said Frank Luna, a former Republican campaign operative who has worked for multiple New Jersey Republicans and lives on the Jersey Shore. “The people who, over the years, have told Bruce Springsteen to shut up and sing are the same people dancing in the aisles to ‘Born in the USA’ with an American flag.”

While Springsteen’s politics have appeared consistently liberal, the politics of some of his fans – and the men and women he wrote about for much of his career – have shifted. Much of his early work focused on the plight of the working class versus the rich: His 1980 ballad “The River” tells the story of a working-class couple looking to make it out, his 1984 song “My Hometown” is about the boom-and-bust nature of some small manufacturing towns and his 1978 song “Badlands” is about greed, wealth and feeling unseen.

But where Democrats were once seen as the party of the working class, under Trump the GOP has made such successful inroads with working class Americans that a recent CNN poll found Democrats and Republicans are tied when it comes to public perception about which party better represents the middle class, a marked departure from the last decades.

“A lot of it has to do with the flight of industrial jobs. The jobs he remembers, the jobs his dad had at the rug factory, don’t really exist in the U.S. anymore,” said Marc Dolan, the author of “Bruce Springsteen and the Promise of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” invoking Springsteen’s 1978 song “Factory” about what his father’s factory work gave him and took away.

Dolan said he believes Springsteen is aware of this shift, which may be why he made these comments abroad. “He is very good at pulling the audience in, making them feel like they are having a collective experience, but also challenging them,” said Dolan. “He has never been one to totally turn off his audience. He is one to put them in a pickle where they don’t know how they feel for a bit. But … how do you challenge the congregation without them leaving the church?”

Pack was intentionally vague when asked why he thought so many New Jersey Republicans declined to respond to questions about Springsteen amid his spat with Trump.

“Don’t wanna piss off the boss,” he said.