Kid Rock Stokes Islamophobic Fears at Trump Rally in Clarksville

“Jesus is king,” Kid Rock declared as he took the stage before a crowd of several thousand MAGA supporters over the weekend. The musician born Bob Ritchie was introducing President Donald Trump on a rainy Saturday afternoon in Clarksville’s F&M Bank Arena. 

The statement wasn’t just a profession of faith, but also a bit of shameless self-promotion. Rock’s latest single, “James 1:17 (Jesus Is King),” played as he took the lectern, which bore the presidential seal.

Also present at the rally were elected officials including U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty and U.S. Rep. Matt Van Epps, as well as congressional candidates Brent Taylor, Charlie Hatcher and Johnny Garrett. Read more coverage of the rally via our sister publication, the Nashville Post.

“This man's not a puppet,” Rock said of Trump, who waited backstage.

Kid Rock sported a black leather jacket, tinted glasses and an Olde English 800 hat on Saturday. Much of his message was familiar, curated GOP fodder — though it was drenched in theocratic theatrics.

“I believe the media has become public enemy number one,” Rock said, pointing across the arena to a riser full of reporters and photographers. 

“I oppose socialism, I oppose communism, and I oppose Islamist extremists whose end goal is to impose Sharia Law on this nation,” he told the crowd, reading from notes he brought to the stage. The crowd replied with chants of “USA! USA! USA!”

“No religious cult or ideology gets to override our Constitution,” he continued. “Is Islam a religion?” 

“No!” the crowd responded. 

“Ideology?”

“No!”

“A cult?”

“Yes!”

“I’d say the latter,” Rock said.

“If you want to stick to the America First agenda, keep America great, and reaffirm that freedom of religion is about as American as it gets, and that we are not, and we will never be one nation under Muhammad — because we are and we always will be one nation under God — friends, neighbors, you know what to do.”

Worth noting: Followers of Islam believe that, like Jesus, Muhammad was a mortal prophet of God.

The rally featured more Red Scare and Islamophobic rhetoric, part of the larger Republican Party electoral playbook. Trump and other GOP officials on Saturday took aim at Michigan’s Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, with Trump calling El-Sayed a “radical jihadist.” Trump also took a swipe at Minnesota's U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar in his remarks. Omar’s home was raided by the Department of Homeland Security two days after the rally. 

American presidents on both sides of the aisle have long palled around with celebrities — in the cases of Ronald Reagan and Trump, some have parlayed their own celebrity into political careers. But as an American affordability crisis grows with America’s latest unpopular war in the Middle East, what message does the aura of celebrity send?

Rock said he wants his grandchildren to “inherit our freedom, not our division.” But at least until Nov. 3, division is what he’s selling.