Jason Aldean’s Defenders: Trump, DeSantis Among GOP Heavyweights Backing Singer Amid Controversy

Topline

The GOP’s top brass has waded into the escalating controversy surrounding Jason Aldean, expressing their support for the country music star as he faces backlash over his latest music video.

Jason Aldean performs at the 58th annual Academy of Country Music Awards on May 11, 2023, at the … [+] Ford Center in Frisco, Texas.

Chris Pizzello/Associated Press

Key Facts

Since Aldean released a music video for Try That In A Small Town on Friday, he’s faced growing backlash from social media users who accuse the video of being racist and promoting violence, which culminated in CMT, the country music-focused television network, pulling the video from its on-air rotation.

The video features Aldean singing in front of a Tennessee courthouse—which some have been quick to point out was the site of a 1927 lynching of a Black man—about guns and how people in small towns will retaliate against those who disrespect the police, commit crimes or act unpatriotically, interspersed with video of police protests, people committing crimes and clashes between protesters and police.

Former President Donald Trump came to Aldean’s defense in a Truth Social post in which he called Aldean “a fantastic guy who just came out with a great new song” and encouraged his followers to “Support Jason all the way.”

Republican North Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem posted a video on social media in which she applauded the song for emphasizing “the value of small towns and how we have our priorities right” and said she is “shocked” that people are trying to “cancel” Aldean and his song.

Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted: “When the media attacks you, you’re doing something right,” adding that Aldean “has nothing to apologize for.”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) lambasted CMT on Twitter for pulling the video, tweeting that the network “should be ashamed,” adding in a separate tweet: “Cancel culture is the enemy of freedom of expression.”

Key Background

Aldean’s video has sparked criticism from a number of notable figures, including Democratic Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones, who said on CNN that the song is “about normalizing racist violence, vigilantism and white nationalism—glorifying a South we’re trying to move forward from here in Tennessee.” On Twitter, Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense In America, called the song “an ode to a sundown town” (“sundown town” referring to a practice that originated in the Jim Crow era, when certain municipalities forced Black people to leave their town by sundown). The group also pointed to the juxtaposition of Aldean’s song with the fact that Aldean’s 2017 concert in Las Vegas was the site of the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history (in 2017, during Aldean’s performance at the Route 91 Harvest music festival, a Nevada man opened fire on the audience, killing 60 and wounding more than 100). Watts also criticized the Republicans who came to his support, pointing out the apparent hypocrisy of Blackburn condemning “cancel culture” in this instance while simultaneously threatening Anheuser-Busch with congressional oversight due to a marketing partnership it did with a transgender influencer. One critic at Variety called the song “the Most Contemptible Country Song of the Decade.”

Crucial Quote

Aldean has addressed the criticism, saying on social media that some of the criticisms claiming the song is racist are “not only meritless, but dangerous.” He continued: “There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it—and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage.”