How Jason Aldean Explains Donald Trump (And Vice Versa)

Published

2 years ago

July 31, 2023

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The commercial success of the country star Jason Aldeans ode to small-town vigilantism helps explain the persistence of Donald Trumps grip on red America.

Aldeans combative new song, Try That in a Small Town, offers a musical riff on the same core message that Trump has articulated since his entry into politics: that America as conservatives understand it is under such extraordinary assault from the multicultural, urbanized modern left that any means necessary is justified to repel the threat.

In Aldeans lyrics and the video he made of his song, those extraordinary means revolve around threats of vigilante force to hold the line against what he portrays as crime and chaos overrunning big cities. In Trumps political message, those means are his systematic shattering of national norms and potentially laws in order to make America great again.

Read: Trumps rhetoric of white nostalgia

Like Trump, Aldean draws on the pervasive anxiety among Republican base voters that their values are being marginalized in a changing America of multiplying cultural and racial diversity. Each man sends the message that extreme measures, even extending to violence, are required to prevent that displacement.

Even for down-home mainstream conservative voters this idea that we have to have a cultural counterrevolution has taken hold, Patrick Brown, a fellow at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, told me. The fact that country music is a channel for that isnt at all surprising.

Aldeans belligerent ballad, whose downloads increased more than tenfold after critics denounced it, follows a tradition of country songs pushing back against challenges to Americas status quo. That resistance was expressed in such earlier landmarks as Lee Greenwoods God Bless the U.S.A., a staple at Republican rallies since its 1984 release. Aldean even more directly channels Merle Haggards 1970 country smash, which warned that those opposing the Vietnam War and runnin down my country would see, as the title proclaimed, the fightin side of me. (Earlier, Haggard expressed similar ideas in his 1969 hit, Okie From Muskogee, which celebrated small-town America, where we dont burn our draft cards down on Main Street.)

Haggards songs (to his later ambivalence) became anthems for conservatives during Richard Nixons presidency, as did Greenwoods during Ronald Reagans. That timing was no coincidence: In both periods, those leaders defined the GOP largely in opposition to social changes roiling the country. This is another such moment: Trump is centering his appeal on portraying himself as the last line of defense between his supporters and an array of shadowy forcesincluding globalist elites, the deep state, and violent urban minorities and undocumented immigrantsthat allegedly threaten them.

Aldean, though a staunch Trump supporter, is a performer, not a politician; his song expresses an attitude, not a program. Yet both Aldean and Trump are tapping the widespread belief among conservative white Christians, especially those in the small towns Aldean mythologizes, that they are the real victims of bias in a society inexorably growing more diverse, secular, and urban.

In various national polls since Trumps first election, in 2016, nine in 10 Republicans have said that Christianity in the U.S. is under assault; as many as three-fourths have agreed that bias against white people is now as big a problem as discrimination against minorities; and about seven in 10 have agreed that society punishes men just for acting like men and that white men are now the group most discriminated against in American society.

The belief that Trump shares those concerns, and is committed to addressing them, has always keyed his connection to the Republican electorate. It has led GOP voters to rally around him each time he has done or said something seemingly indefensiblea process that now appears to be repeating even with the January 6 insurrection.

In a national survey released yesterday by Bright Line Watcha collaborative of political scientists studying threats to American democracy60 percent of Republicans (compared with only one-third of independents and one-sixth of Democrats) described the January 6 riot as legitimate political protest. Only a little more than one in 10 Republicans said that Trump committed a crime in his actions on January 6 or during his broader campaign to overturn the 2020 presidential election result.

The revisionist whitewashing of January 6 among conservatives helps explain why Aldean, without any apparent sense of contradiction or irony, can center his song on violent fantasies of good ol boys, raised up right delivering punishment to people who cuss out a cop or stomp on the flag. Trump supporters, many of whom would likely fit Aldeans description of good ol boys, did precisely those things when they stormed the Capitol in 2021. (A January 6 rioter from Arkansas, for instance, was sentenced this week to 52 months in prison for assaulting a cop with a flag.) Yet Aldean pairs those lyrics with images not of the insurrection but of shadowy protesters rampaging through city streets.

By ignoring the January 6 attack while stressing the left-wing violence that sometimes erupted alongside the massive racial-justice protests following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, Aldean, like Trump, is making a clear statement about whom he believes the law is meant to protect and whom it is designed to suppress. The video visually underscores that message because it was filmed outside a Tennessee courthouse where a young Black man was lynched in 1927. Aldean has said he was unaware of the connection, and he’s denied any racist intent in the song. But as the Vanderbilt University historian Nicole Hemmer wrote for CNN.com last week, Whether he admits it or not, both Aldeans song and the courthouse where a teen boy was murdered serve as a reminder that historically, appeals to so-called law and order often rely just as much on White vigilantism as they do on formal legal procedures.

Aldeans song, above all, captures the sense of siege solidifying on the right. It reflects in popular culture the same militancy in the GOP base that has encouraged Republican leaders across the country to adopt more aggressive tactics against Democrats and liberal interests on virtually every front since Trumps defeat in 2020.

A Republican legislative majority in Tennessee, for instance, expelled two young Black Democratic state representatives, and a GOP majority in Montana censured a transgender Democratic state representative and barred her from the floor. Republican-controlled states are advancing incendiary policies that might have been considered unimaginable even a few years ago, like the program by the Texas state government to deter migrants by installing razor wire along the border and floating buoys in the Rio Grande. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy raised the possibility of impeaching Joe Biden. The boycott of Bud Light for simply partnering on a promotional project with a transgender influencer represents another front in this broad counterrevolution on the right. In his campaign, Trump is promising a further escalation: He says if reelected, he will mobilize federal power in unprecedented ways to deliver what he has called retribution for conservatives against blue targets, for instance, by sending the National Guard into Democratic-run cities to fight crime, pursuing a massive deportation program of undocumented immigrants, and openly deploying the Justice Department against his political opponents.

Brown, of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, pointed out that even as Republicans at both the state and national levels push this bristling agenda, they view themselves not as launching a culture war but as responding to one waged against them by liberals in the media, academia, big corporations, and advocacy groups. The dominant view among Republicans, he said, is that were trying to run a defensive action here. We are not aggressing; we are being aggressed upon.

That fear of being displaced in a evolving America has become the most powerful force energizing the GOP electoratewhat Ive called the coalition of restoration. From the start of his political career, Trump has targeted that feeling with his promise to make America great again. Aldean likewise looks back to find his vision of Americas future, defending his song at one concert as an expression of his desire to see America restored to what it once was, before all this bullshit started happening to us.

Read: How working-class white voters became the GOPs foundation

As Brown noted, the 2024 GOP presidential race has become a competition over who is most committed to fighting the left to excavate that lost America. Aldeans song and video help explain why. He has written a battle march for the deepening cold war between the nations diverging red and blue blocs. In his telling, like Trumps, traditionally conservative white Americans are being menaced by social forces that would erase their way of life. For blue America, the process Aldean is describing represents a long-overdue renegotiation as previously marginalized groups such as racial minorities and the LGBTQ community demand more influence and inclusion. In red America, hes describing an existential threat that demands unconditional resistance.

Most Republicans, polls show, are responding to that threat by uniting again behind Trump in the 2024 nomination race, despite the credible criminal charges accumulating against him. But the real message of Try That in a Small Town is that whatever happens to Trump personally, most voters in the Republican coalition are virtually certain to continue demanding leaders who are, like Aldeans good ol boys raised up right, itching for a fight against all that they believe endangers their world.

Entertainment

Noel Clarke ordered to pay at least £3m of Guardian publisher’s legal fees

Published

2 hours ago

September 23, 2025

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Noel Clarke ordered to pay at least £3m of Guardian publisher's legal fees

Noel Clarke has been ordered to pay at least £3m of The Guardian publisher’s legal costs after losing his “far-fetched” libel case over allegations of sexual misconduct reported by the newspaper.

The first article, published in April 2021, said some 20 women who knew the actor and filmmaker in a professional capacity had come forward with allegations including harassment and sexually inappropriate behaviour.

Clarke, best known for his 2006 film Kidulthood and for starring in Doctor Who, sued Guardian News and Media (GNM) over seven articles in total, as well as a podcast, and vehemently denied “any sexual misconduct or wrongdoing”.

Following a trial earlier this year, a High Court judge found the newspaper’s reporting was substantially true, agreeing with the publisher’s defence of its reporting as both true and in the public interest.

At a hearing to determine costs on Tuesday, Clarke represented himself – saying in written submissions to the court that his legal team had resigned as he was unable to provide funding for the hearing.

Mrs Justice Steyn ruled that he must pay £3m ahead of a detailed assessment into the total costs to be recovered, which lawyers for the publisher estimated to be more than £6m.

“The claimant maintained a far-fetched and indeed a false case that the articles were not substantially true, by pursuing allegations of dishonesty and bad faith against almost all of the defendant’s truth witnesses,” the judge said.

The sum of £3m sought by GNM was “appropriate and no more than what ought to be reasonably ordered in this case”, she added, and “substantially lower than the defendant’s likely level of recovery”.

Clarke, 49, told the court he used ChatGPT to prepare his response to GNM’s barrister Gavin Millar KC, who asked the judge to order £3m as an interim payment – which he said was “significantly less” than the “norm” of asking for 75%-80%.

The actor described the proposed costs order as “excessive”, “inflated” and “caused by their own choices”, and asked the court to “consider both the law and the human reality of these proceedings”.

He also requested for the order on costs be held, pending an appeal.

“I have not been vexatious and I have not tried to play games with the court,” Clarke said. “I have lost my work, my savings, my legal team, my ability to support my family and much of my health.

“My wife and children live every day under the shadow of uncertainty. We remortgaged our home just to survive.

“Any costs or interim payments must be proportionate to my means as a single household, not the unlimited resources of a major media conglomerate.

“A crushing order would not just punish me, it would punish my children and wife, and they do not deserve that.”

Detailing GNM’s spend, Mr Millar said about 40,000 documents, including audio recordings and transcripts, had to be reviewed as a result of Clarke bringing the case against then. He highlighted a number of “misconceived applications” made by the actor which “required much work from the defendant’s lawyers in response”.

During the trial, the actor accused GNM – as well as a number of women who made accusations against him – of being part of a conspiracy aiming to destroy his career.

This conspiracy allegation “massively increased the scale and costs of the litigation by giving rise to a whole new unpleaded line of attack against witnesses and third parties,” Mr Millar said in written submissions to the court.

Clarke originally asked for damages of £10m, increasing to £40m and then £70m as the case progressed, the barrister said.

He must now pay GNM the £3m within 28 days, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled.

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World

‘Islamic NATO’ in the making – why Saudi-Pakistan defence deal could be game changing

Published

2 hours ago

September 23, 2025

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'Islamic NATO' in the making - why Saudi-Pakistan defence deal could be game changing

While Britain and America were engrossed in the pageantry and diplomacy of a US presidential visit last week, another event pretty much went unnoticed in most Western capitals – and it could have a profound impact on geopolitics.

The “Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement” was signed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on 17 September.

Seen as an “Islamic NATO” in the making, at its core is the clause that “any aggression against either country, shall be considered an aggression against both”.

Article 5 of NATO states the same, and is the cornerstone principle of collective defence that binds members of the alliance.

If an ally is attacked, each member will consider it an attack against them all and will take action to help. This clause has often been cited since Putin’s war on Ukraine.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have a longstanding relationship, with Pakistan willing to defend the holy sites of Mecca and Medina as Shia Iran threatened the Kingdom.

The new pact between Sunni Saudi Arabia, a country considered the heart of the Islamic world, with Pakistan – the only Muslim nuclear nation – is bound to set a new order.

Pakistani defence minister Khawaja Asif said “the deterrence that we get from nuclear weapons, and what we have, and the capabilities we possess, will be made available to Saudi Arabia according to this agreement”.

Pakistan has also not ruled out other Islamic nations joining the coalition and its deputy prime minister, Ishaq Dar, said “other countries have also expressed a desire for similar arrangements”.

The signing took place a week after Israel launched airstrikes against Hamas officials discussing US ceasefire proposals in a Qatari government complex.

The unprecedented attack in Doha has shattered the illusion of American reliability in the region for rich Arab and Gulf countries.

Israel’s menacing military strikes – in Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Qatar – have precipitated the idea of a protective nuclear umbrella of their own.

Major blow for India

A cash-strapped, politically unstable and quasi-military Pakistan, willing to share its weapons, is a win-win for both countries.

It’s a coup for Pakistan because a client like Saudi Arabia puts it centre stage in the Islamic world, with its credibility sky high and the potential for more patrons.

It has also dealt a major diplomatic and security blow to nuclear arch rival India, against whom it’s fought multiple wars and clashes.

Relations between Saudi Arabia, Gulf nations and India have improved considerably over the years.

But the concern is, would the pact automatically bring these nations into Pakistan’s corner if there was a conflict with India.

After the deadly clashes between the two countries in May, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “we have merely suspended our retaliatory actions against Pakistan’s terrorist and military targets for now”.

India’s foreign ministry said it would “study the implications for national security and regional and global stability”.

It added: “India and Saudi Arabia have a wide-ranging strategic partnership which has deepened considerably in the last few years. We expect that this strategic partnership will keep in mind mutual interests and sensitivities.”

However, there will be worry and concern in the Indian establishment as its nemesis has prized open a door which they hope does not become a chasm.

The Indians will be hoping the pact remains one of just political solidarity and doesn’t transform into unconditional war guarantees.

India’s diplomacy faces huge challenges; it has been singled out by President Trump for a punitive 25% extra tariff for buying discounted Russian oil, taking the total to 50%, one of the highest in the world.

Relations with China have also been very difficult over the years, while ties between Pakistan and China have strengthened into an all-weather friendship.

The Saudi-Pakistan deal aims to expand military cooperation, joint exercises and intelligence sharing to counter threats, terrorism and cross-border insurgencies.

It also covers the transfer of technology and co-production of military equipment between the countries.

This pact could change the course of the Middle East as Pakistan’s 170 warheads provide the Kingdom with a deterrent that might later expand to cover other countries – an Islamic NATO with potential to reshape the world.

World

Thousands flee homes as Super Typhoon Ragasa approaches Hong Kong

Published

2 hours ago

September 23, 2025

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Thousands flee homes as Super Typhoon Ragasa approaches Hong Kong

Flights have been cancelled, schools and businesses have closed, and thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes as one of the strongest typhoons of recent years approaches southern China and Hong Kong.

Super Typhoon Ragasa, with winds near its centre of around 137mph (220kmh), according to Hong Kong’s observatory, is travelling across the South China Sea towards Guangdong province, the southern Chinese economic powerhouse.

At least three people have died and more than 17,500 displaced by flooding and landslides in the Philippines because of the storm, categorised as a “super typhoon” by the observatory because it contains winds of more than 115mph (185kmh).

Ragasa is expected to make landfall in the coastal area between the cities of Zhuhai and Zhanjiang in Guangdong on Wednesday between midday and evening, local time, China’s National Meteorological Centre said.

Sandbags and barriers have been placed by doors to protect homes, and windows and glass doors have been taped ahead of expected high winds.

Many people stockpiled food and other supplies on Monday, and some market traders said their goods were selling out fast.

Hurricane-force winds were forecast across a wide area, the observatory said, confirming it will issue the third-highest storm warning signal in its weather alert system, on Tuesday afternoon.

Winds of 84mph (135kph) were recorded near the ground at a distance of about 75 miles (120km) from the typhoon’s centre, it said.

Water levels may go as high as four to five metres (13ft to 16ft) above the typical lowest sea level, while coastal areas could see rises of up to two metres (6.5ft).

Schools were closed in Hong Kong and the neighbouring city of Macao, while classes were cancelled in other cities, including the tech hub of Shenzhen.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled in Hong Kong. Shenzhen Airport will halt all flights from Tuesday night.

The Macao government was evacuating residents and tourists and ordered bridges to close in the evening as it expected Ragasa would pass within 62 miles (100km) to the south of the casino hub on Wednesday morning.

At least six people were injured and over 7,000 people were evacuated in Taiwan when the typhoon swept south of the island, and over 8,000 households lost power, the Central News Agency reported.

As well as the three known to have died, five others are missing in the Philippines because of Ragasa, the most powerful storm to hit the Southeast Asian archipelago this year, the country’s disaster-response agency and provincial officials said.