You knew something like this was coming. President Donald Trump kicked off Independence Day with a tweet featuring a video of a church choir singing an original “Make America Great Again” song.
And yes, it’s as eerie and frightening as you’d think it would be.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/882186896285282304
Featuring close-up shots of mostly middle-aged white people wearing matching outfits and backed by a giant American flag, the whole thing feels like a dystopian anthem or a piece of explicit propaganda. It’s actually an entirely real song performed by First Baptist Church in Dallas Saturday night.
The song was performed as part of an introduction to Trump’s speech during its Celebrate Freedom Rally and was written by the church’s former minister of music Gary Moore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3060&v=ZVBpMC6HxBc
The song itself is full of the exact kind of cliches you would expect, with lyrics like “Lift the torch of freedom all across the land/step into the future joining hand in hand/and make America great again.” Trump’s speech that follows is equally saccharine and broad, ending with a targeted one-liner for an audience full of his supporters. “In America we don’t worship government,” he says. “We worship God.”
Twitter, however, had a song of its own to sing in response.
Happy close the beaches down for your own private use day. pic.twitter.com/LAksYo8K06
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 4, 2017
https://twitter.com/bryankimunivers/status/882188451877187587
https://twitter.com/bryankimunivers/status/882189087041564672
https://twitter.com/VicBergerIV/status/882193369723793412
In true American internet fashion, a far more accurate mashup soon appeared. Happy Fourth of July.
We fixed it for you #July4th #fireworks pic.twitter.com/e44h1XyuLR
— Trump Block Party (@TrumpBlockParty) July 4, 2017
H/T ABC News
