Controversial Right-Wing Musician Ted Nugent Joins Donald Trump in Michigan
Hillary Clinton brought out Beyoncé, Katy Perry and Jay Z on the campaign trail, so in Michigan on Saturday GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is releasing the big gun of conservative celebrity endorsements: rock musician, controversial Michigander and NRA board member Ted Nugent.
Nugent made the announcement in a Facebook video that took place in front of a backdrop of stuffed animal heads. He added that he would be going deer hunting later.
“Just got a call from Donald Trump, and I’m going to play the national anthem. Because I would ask Michigan: Are you sick and tired of being California?” Nugent asked, while sometimes veering off to play on the guitar strapped around his neck.
Nugent then went on to characterize the Golden State, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Maryland, Massachusetts and Connecticut as states that are “anti-American, anti-freedom, anti-we-the-people, anti-earning-your-own-way.”
Nugent has a long track record of calling for the death of Democratic leaders, particularly Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
The musician's attack on contemporary Democratic politicians got its start in September 2007, when Nugent waved a machine gun on the stage of a concert and called Obama a number of vulgarities and said for him to “suck on my machine gun.” He also used the same weapon to threaten Clinton.
These comments haven’t dissipated. In April 2012, Nugent triggered a Secret Service investigation after saying that if Obama won reelection, the musician would “either be dead or in jail this time next year.” In January, he called for Obama and Clinton to be “tried for treason and hung.”
“The whole world sucks, but America sucks less,” Nugent said in Saturday’s Facebook announcement. “Let’s stop the sucking already.”