Green Day is slammed for changing lyrics of American Idiot to ‘I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda’ on ABC’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve

• Punk band switched ‘redneck’ with Donald Trump slogan ‘MAGA’ during live gig
• Trump supporters were furious and accused the band of selling out to Biden
• But the 2004 song was always highly political and mocking of conservatives 

Punk band Green Day has tweaked a line in its famously political song American Idiot to mock Donald Trump during a New Year’s Eve performance.

Playing at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, the band changed the line ‘I’m not a part of a redneck agenda’ to ‘I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda’.

MAGA stands for ‘Make America Great Again’ and was Trump’s slogan during his 2016 presidential run and beyond.

American Idiot was written to criticize then-president George W Bush in 2004 and has been repurposed for a new generation since 2017.

But the live performance and subsequent social media sharing showed off the band’s anti-Trump lyrics to more than its usual fans.

Supporters of the former president were outraged the band took aim at them, some even accusing them of selling out.

‘Green Day goes from raging against the machine to milquetoastedly raging for it,’ Tesla and Twitter owner Elon Musk wrote on the social media platform.

‘Sellouts lied to everyone about their political stance, they went from drain the swamp to lets collect that bag,’ another user wrote.

‘Green Day is woke corporate fake punk. I’m old enough to remember when punks were against the establishment,’ a third raged.

Montana Republican chairman Don Kaltschmidt believed the band would lose fans for its stunt.

‘Bad decision never involve politics in your music… you just p**sed off half your fans.. not necessary. But the young make foolish decisions… been there,’ he wrote.

Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong is now 51 and along with the rest of the band are not the spring chickens they were during the height of their fame decades ago.

However, many others pointed out that Green Day was always one of the most political bands in music, and few songs more so than American Idiot. 

‘So, did y’all just figure out Green Day sang protest songs? Did you think they were MAGAs?’ one wrote.

‘This is like when y’all found out Rage Against the Machine are anti-capitalist. Did you folks even listen to the music you had growing up?’

‘Green Day’s album American Idiot was released 20 years ago. If you are just now discovering their political leaning you: 1. Are not a fan 2. Never listen to lyrics 3. Are one of those American idiots,’ another added.

Timed for the runup to the 2004 presidential election with Bush vying for a second term, the song took aim at the Iraq War, conservative politics, and corporate media.

Armstrong famously told a crowd in a live version of the song at the time ‘don’t hate our country, just hate our government’.

Green Day tweaked the lyric to being about MAGA in 2017 and uses it for every live performance in much the same way as it did in 2004.

‘It makes me sad tho (sic) that this song is more relevant and true now than it was 20 years ago when it came out,’ one fan wrote.

The band also mocked Trump by selling a T-shirt switching the faces on the front of the 1997 Nimrod album cover with his mug shot, calling him ‘the ultimate Nimrod’.