Keen listeners at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and Trump rally in Michigan this week may have noticed a subtle development on the campaign trail: JD Vance officially has a walk-on song.
On the surface, the track, 2005’s “America First” by country legend Merle Haggard, seems like a solid fit.
After all, it shares a name with one of Donald Trump’s signature slogans, and has lyrics that gel with his criticisms of foreign wars.
“Why don’t we liberate these United States/ We’re the ones need it the worst/ Let the rest of the world help us for a change/ And let’s rebuild America first,” goes one part of the song.
The song was written during the Iraq War, a conflict JD Vance served in but has also criticized.
“When I was a senior in high school, that same Joe Biden supported the disastrous invasion of Iraq,” Vance said at the RNC. “From Iraq to Afghanistan, from the financial crisis to the great recession, from open borders to stagnating wages, the people who govern this country have failed and failed again.”
What Vance didn’t mention is that Donald Trump also initially supported the Iraq war.
In a 2002 interview with Howard Stern, the radio host asked Trump if he supported the invasion.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Trump responded. “I wish the first time it was done correctly.”
Trump has later falsely claimed he opposed the war since before it began.
The mismatch with “America First” may go beyond just Trump’s record of foreign policy opinions.
Haggard, while he was alive, resisted attempts to be claimed by one party or another.
“There are things I go for on both sides of the fence,” he once explained to Variety. “I can’t be called one or the other, because if I was one of ‘em, I’d want to be the other one.”
“America First,” he went on, was in fact written from a place of criticism towards George Bush and 9/11-era laws like the controversial Patriot Act, which provided sweeping surveillance powers to federal authorities.
“I’m going to say as an American that I think they’ve been disingenuous with the public about the reasons why we’re there,” Haggard said. “And I think the United States of America is mature enough to understand the real reasons…. I’m just disappointed in the fact that (Bush) doesn’t level with us… I think if we’re gonna have to suffer sanctions as Americans when it comes to freedom, then we ought to know the entire picture.”
Haggard also defended fellow country stars The Chicks (formerly The Dixie Chicks), when they were faced with intense public backlash for criticizing George Bush.
Haggard called their treatment a “witch-hunt” and a verbal “lynching.”
“I don’t even know the Dixie Chicks, but I find it an insult for all men and women who fought and died in past wars when almost the majority of America jumped down their throats for voicing an opinion,” he said.
Haggard, who died in 2016, wrote a variety of political songs in his time, from one praising Hillary Clinton, to 1969 “Okie from Muskogee,” a rebuke of the hippie during the Vietnam War.
“When I was in prison, I knew what it was like to have freedom taken away,” Haggard once said of the song. “Freedom is everything. During Vietnam, there were all kinds of protests. Here were these [servicemen] going over there and dying for a cause—we don’t even know what it was really all about. And here are these young kids, that were free, bitching about it. There’s something wrong with that and with [disparaging] those poor guys.”
The track became a touchstone for many conservatives, though Haggard later claimed he was “dumb as a rock” when he wrote the song.
Here are the full lyrics of “America First,” according to Genius.
[Verse]
Why don’t we liberate these United States
We’re the ones need it the worst
Let the rest of the world help us for a change
And let’s rebuild America first
Our highways and bridges are falling apart
Who’s blessed and who has been cursed?
There’s things to be done all over the world
But let’s rebuild America first
Who’s on the Hill and who’s watching the valley?
And who’s in charge of it all?
God bless the Army and God bless our liberty
And dadgum the rest of it all
Yeah, men in position are backing away
Freedom is stuck in reverse
Let’s get out of Iraq and get back on the track
And let’s rebuild America first
Why don’t we liberate these United States?
We’re the ones who need it the most
You think I’m blowing smoke?
Boys, it ain’t no joke
I make twenty trips a year from coast to coast