After Republican Congressman Tim Burchett likened Jack White to Wednesday Addams in a snarky social media post to gin up a reaction from MAGA supporters, the musician responded on Tuesday with a 384-word missive on Instagram. “The great state of Tennessee deserves better, Mr. Burchett, but you and your cult are too dug in and blinded to even realize it,” he said.
Burchett’s post, on Monday, retweeted a five-second clip of White saying, “Don’t even think about listening to my music, you fascist.” In his response, White said that the video was AI-generated. The poster, @MAGAresponse, asked, “What’s your response to Jack White?” The congressman, who reps a district in eastern Tennessee, replied on Monday,” That cute little girl from the Addams Family got really ugly and angry.”
White took the high road in his response. “Can you believe that a U.S. congressman, that’s right, a CONGRESSMAN (from my state no less), a once hallowed and respected position in our society, would repost an A.I. generated video, containing a false comment that I never said and refuted (without researching that I might add) and like a 10-year-old on a playground, add to it attempted insults to my physical appearance?” the musician wrote. “What kind of joke are we all living in now? All of Trump’s lackeys and bootlicks like this elected official are cowards that would never talk this way to anybody like me or you in person. Trump really lowered the bar when he brought his scourge to this government.”
White’s response criticized what he characterized as “sycophantic” politicians who lack dignity and “regurgitate … fake Christian(!) rhetoric.” He expressed a wish that “the average American conservative” could converse with people from other countries to learn “what a joke our government (and by proxy our country) has become.”
Ultimately, he described Congressman Burchett, and those like him, as embarrassing. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: There will come a time in the future when none of these right wingers will admit to being a part of this cult from this time period,” he wrote. “All the MAGA hats will be in landfills and actual intelligent and honorable leadership will take their place. … I’m wondering if half of these so called representatives have ever actually read the Constitution that they pledged an oath to.”
Although White did not tell MAGA supporters not to listen to his music, he has called Donald Trump “a disgusting, vile, egomaniac loser, child,” for the president’s response to Rob Reiner’s death, and has said that he considers Trump’s insults a “badge of honor.”
In an op-ed, Rolling Stone praised White’s responses to Trump. “He’s speaking truth to power and getting under the president’s skin, and his punches are landing,” Senior Writer Angie Martoccio wrote. “We should listen to him now, more than ever.”
