British anti-Trump activists launched a campaign to push Green Day’s hit 2004 rock song “American Idiot” to the top of the charts, despite the fact that the song was inspired by former president George W. Bush and the Iraq War.
The campaign has successfully pushed the song up several music charts, including the Amazon digital music chart, where the song is currently at number one, ahead of President Donald Trump’s official visit to the United Kingdom.
“American Idiot” also briefly entered the iTunes chart before disappearing.
“Chart Data also reports that the song cracked the Top 20 on Britain’s Official Singles chart midway through the charting week,” reported the Independent, which explained that an anti-Trump Twitter account had been “encouraging fans to download and stream the song from Friday 6 July to the end of 12 July so the song will be in the charts when Trump lands in the UK.”
Despite attempts to use the song to spite President Trump, “American Idiot” is actually inspired by former president George W. Bush and the Iraq War, and features lyrics criticizing the media — one of President Trump’s most famous enemies.
Last March, while performing at the American Music Awards, the rock trio chanted “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA!” from the stage.
Green Day guitarist and lead vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong unloaded on both Bush and Trump in an interview Rolling Stone last year. “Bush, as far as I’m concerned, is a war criminal. With Trump, we have no idea. Right now it’s just a freak show,” he said.
President Trump’s election was seen largely as a conservative rejection of neoconservative politics and figures, such as Bush, in favor of a more non-interventionist populism.
Bush has previously criticized President Trump and his policies, while his father, former president George H. W. Bush, voted for President Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington, or like his page at Facebook.