BERLIN — Veteran rock star Bruce Springsteen, a high-profile critic of President Donald Trump, slammed the U.S. administration as ''corrupt, incompetent and treasonous'' during a concert Wednesday in Berlin.
He was addressing tens of thousands of fans at a stadium built for the 1936 Olympic Games that still bears the scars of World War II and contains relics from the country's dark Nazi past.
''Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices, stand with us against authoritarianism, and let freedom reign,'' he said.
Springsteen has made increasingly pointed and contentious public statements in recent concerts. He peppered Wednesday's performance with mentions of the American democracy's system of checks and balances designed to ward against authoritarianism.
His short speeches — referencing recent headlines about immigration raids, the freezing of federal funds for universities and measles outbreaks — came between songs that were also captioned in German on large screens beside the stage. The set was flanked by an American flag on one side and a German flag on the other.
Still, the Boss remained hopeful: ''The America that I've sung to you about for the past 50 years of my life is real. And regardless of its many faults, it's a great country with great people. And we will survive this moment.''
But last month in Manchester, he denounced Trump's politics during a concert, calling him an ''unfit president'' leading a ''rogue government'' of people who have ''no concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American.''
Springsteen is no stranger to Berlin. In July 1988, he became one of the first Western musicians to perform in East Germany, performing to a roaring crowd of 160,000 East Germans yearning for American rock 'n' roll and the freedom it represented to the youth living under the crumbling communist regime.
