But the link between MAGA and YMCA isn’t just about having fun, says Dr A Jamie Saris, an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Maynooth University. “I don’t think you can separate Trump and his base from nostalgia,” Dr Saris tells the . “They want a do-over. That is, they want to relive certain moments that they have in their brains as when America was great; they just don’t want to deal with the contradictions. Disco was problematic for a lot of kids at the time, but now the same people who used to be uncomfortable with it are saying, ‘The 1970s were great! My back didn’t hurt!'”
Besides, says Dr Saris, the nostalgia inherent in the MAGA movement tips over into camp. “You see these office workers at Trump’s rallies dressed up as war veterans and Navy Seals and blue-collar workers.” Strange as it seems, their cosplay is not so different from that of the Village People who, with more knowing irony, fetishise supposedly wholesome and honest ways of life by dressing up as a policeman, a soldier, a cowboy, an Indigenous American chief, a construction worker, and a leather-clad biker: what Dr Saris calls “still-admired images of American masculinity”.
An ‘eclectic’ songbook
None of this makes the connection between the song and the politician any less head-scratching: campaign anthems tend to be about patriotism, freedom, and hope for the future, not about hanging out with the boys when you’re short on dough. But it’s worth noting that Trump’s music choices are limited. The list of artists who have objected to the use of their work at his rallies, or have had their lawyers send cease-and-desist letters, is an extremely long one, which includes Beyoncé, Rihanna, Celine Dion, REM and Aerosmith. When The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army” was played at a rally, Jack White responded on Instagram: “Don’t even think about using my music you fascists. Lawsuit coming from my lawyers about this (to add to your 5 thousand others).” The band has since dropped the lawsuit.
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Oddly enough, another name on that list is Victor Willis of the Village People. In June 2020, he announced that he didn’t want Trump to play his songs anymore and in 2023 he sent a cease-and-desist letter after a group dressed as the Village People was seen performing at Mar-a-Lago. Still, numerous individuals who spoke out against Trump in recent years have since changed their minds, and Willis is one of them. “The financial benefits have been great,” he pointed out on Facebook in December. “YMCA is estimated to gross several million dollars since the President-elect’s continued use of the song. Therefore, I’m glad I allowed the President-elect’s continued use of YMCA. And I thank him for choosing to use my song.” Incidentally, Willis also announced in that post that he never meant there to be any innuendo in such lyrics as, “I’m sure you will find many ways to have a good time.” His wife, he said, would be suing any news organisation which described YMCA as a gay anthem.
Still confused by the sight of a 78-year-old President-elect boogying to a disco number punctuated by the words “Young man”? Well, it could be that this confusion is part of the point: one thing that amuses Donald Trump’s supporters and frustrates his detractors is that he doesn’t fit neatly into one box. “Trump’s musical selections (and they do always seem to be his personal selections) tell us a lot about him,” Professor James Garratt, the author of Music and Politics: A Critical Introduction, tells the , “since unlike other politicians, he doesn’t seem to care if his choices seem chaotic, random or ideologically inconsistent. This is, after all, a man who has repeatedly switched his political allegiances, and his songbook similarly lurches around eclectically. I don’t think that he’s trolling liberals by using songs such as YMCA; rather, we’re seeing the authentic Trump in all his mixed-up glory.”
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