On October 3, Zach Bryan posted a snippet of an unreleased song on his Instagram with the caption “the fading of the red white and blue.” “I heard the cops came/Cocky motherfuckers, ain’t they?”, Bryan sings on the track, which according to Stereogum is titled “Bad News.” “And ICE is gonna come bust down your door/Try to build a house that no one builds no more/But I got a telephone/Kids are scared and all alone.”
Bryan’s lyrics have since drawn the ire of the federal government—a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly common. On October 7, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of public affairs for the United States Department of Homeland Security, told TMZ that Bryan should “stick to ‘Pink Skies,’” referencing a song from his 2024 album The Great American Bar Scene. DHS went on to taunt Bryan by using his song “Revival” in a recruitment video.
Bryan has since responded with a statement clarifying that, when the finished song is out, we will see that “the full context that hits on both sides of the aisle,” as he put it in an Instagram story. Rather than standing up for communities targeted by ICE and the Trump administration, he is “just a 29 year old man who is just as confused as everyone else,” he says, and the debacle shows “how divisive a narrative can be when shoved down our throats through social media.” He adds, “Left wing or right wing we’re all one bird and American. To be clear I’m on neither of these radical sides.” Read his full statement below.
Under the second Trump administration, the United States Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency has been conducting raids and mass deportations in cities across the U.S. Following the news that Bad Bunny, who is Puerto Rican, would perform the halftime show at Super Bowl LX next year, DHS adviser and President Donald J. Trump’s 2024 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said that ICE agents would be present at the event.
