On Dec. 9, 2024, an X user shared a screenshot purportedly showing a post by President-elect Donald Trump on his social media platform, Truth Social. The alleged post read: "Recently, Melania took Baron [sic], A GREAT GUITARIST, to see overrated, communist singer, Bruce Springstern [sic]. NOT IMPRESSED!!!"
The X post had amassed more than 430,000 views as of this writing.
(@PopularLiberal/X)
However, the screenshot was fake. There was no evidence of its having been posted on his Truth Social profile, nor on his X account. Furthermore, no credible news outlets reported on the president-elect making such remarks about Springsteen online.
Some social media users noticed two red flags in the fake screenshot: the misspelling of "Springsteen" as "Springstern" and "Barron" Trump as "Baron."
"Who's Bruce Springstern?" one person asked, while another added: "Not only his son's name but who in the hailstones is Springstern?"
While the Truth Social post was a fabrication, the underlying tension between Trump and Springsteen is very real. For instance, during a May 2024 rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, Trump mocked the singer and his popularity by insisting he had "a much bigger crowd than Bruce Springsteen."
Springsteen, for his part, has been equally vocal in his criticism of Trump, lambasting the president-elect's divisive leadership and calling him an "American tyrant" during an October 2024 rally in support of then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Most recently, in late October 2024, Springsteen doubled down during an interview with British newspaper The Telegraph, calling Trump "mentally ill" and asking the journalist: "Are you going to sleep well knowing that the nuclear codes have been given to Donald Trump? No. No one is."
Snopes has previously reported on Springsteen's disdain for Trump, including the claim that the musician said he would leave the U.S. if Trump was reelected in 2024.