The Chicks frontwoman Natalie Maines has launched a blistering attack on U.S. President Donald Trump in a new Instagram post, calling him a derogatory term and warning that democracy is fading.
"Our democracy is disappearing right before our eyes," the 51-year-old singer wrote on Tuesday. "This fugly slut is using your gas money to pay the insurrectionists," she continued, seemingly referring to Trump's war in Iran, which has caused a surge in gas prices, as well as a deal with the Internal Revenue Service to create a nearly $1.8 billion fund to pay 'victims of lawfare and weaponization.'
Maines added: "But don't worry about it. I'm sure posting selfies will fix everything." The post also featured Trump's official presidential portrait alongside photos from the scene of the January 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol.
Not the first time
Maines claimed it is not the first time she has used the insult. "My last post that called him a fugly slut got removed," she noted. "We'll see how long this one lasts." She called on her followers to "repost and help the message live" and added of Trump: "Named 1M times in the #epsteinfiles," using hashtags including #democracy, #freespeech, and #fuglyslut.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin told Axios in February that his search for 'Trump' in a database of unredacted files relating to Jeffrey Epstein yielded more than one million results, though he later clarified that not every result necessarily referenced Trump.
A history of political outspokenness
The 12-time Grammy winner has never shied away from political commentary. More than 23 years ago, Maines was on stage in London with her band, then known as The Dixie Chicks, when she criticized then-President George W. Bush over the impending invasion of Iraq in 2003. "Just so you know, we're on the good side with y'all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas," she told the audience. Bandmate Emily Strayer added, "But you know we're behind the troops 100 per cent."
The backlash was swift. The trio, which also includes Strayer's sister Martie Maguire, was banned from thousands of country music stations and received death threats. Two months later, the Chicks appeared on the cover of Entertainment Weekly with epithets scrawled on their naked bodies. Robison and Maguire told the outlet last year that they still stood by their actions, despite some country radio stations still refusing to play their music. "But it had to be all the way, like with the 'Sadaam's Angels' stuff," Maguire explained. "Those were real things people were writing to us in emails and posting on the web." Robison added: "People say when they're in the moment and they realize that something is going to be big before it happens. I felt like we knew the gravity of that shoot while it was happening."
