Country music icon George Strait canceled a show with rock and roll legend Bruce Springsteen, citing the latter’s criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump.
A rumor that legendary country musician George Strait canceled an upcoming show with iconic rocker Bruce Springsteen circulated online in May 2025. The claim alleged that Strait took offense to Springsteen’s recent political statements, prompting him to pull out of their appearance together.
The rumor spread after Springsteen traded verbal blows with Donald Trump in mid-May, calling the U.S. president’s administration “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous.” Trump fired back at the musician, branding him a “dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker.”
The claim involving Strait gained traction after conservative celebrities posted it on X (archived, archived), while it was also shared by popular Facebook accounts (archived, archived).
(X user @ksorbs)
Some versions of the claim suggested the alleged show was set to take place at the famous country music venue Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, but others simply said it was a concert that would air on Country Music Television without specifying the venue.
For example, a meme in one Facebook post (archived) read: “Country legend George Strait canceled his Night at the Grand Ole Opry with Bruce Springsteen after the incident in Europe: ‘I don’t care who you are. You don’t mix music and politics.’ King George has spoken.”
A different Facebook post (archived) was captioned: “George Strait says he’s canceling his crossover show with Bruce Springsteen on CMT this summer after his disrespectful remarks on stage in Europe. ‘I don’t want anything to do with that,’ said King George, ‘There’s no place for politics on my stages.’ The show would have been their third together.”
Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as fact. However, there was no evidence to support the claim that Strait canceled a show with Springsteen, nor that he even had one scheduled to begin with (archived). A Google search produced no evidence of credible news outlets reporting on the alleged story. Further, Strait is not a member of the Grand Ole Opry (archived).
In fact, the rumor originated with the above Facebook post by an account called America’s Last Line of Defense. ALLOD describes itself as a “network of trollery” and is linked to websites and social media pages that describe their output as satirical in nature.
The image in the ALLOD Facebook post included a “satire” label in the upper left corner, as did the meme in the Facebook post that claimed the show was meant to take place at the Grand Ole Opry. ALLOD’s Intro section also reads: “Nothing on this page is real.”
The fictional story spread as Springsteen made headlines for criticizing Trump during a show in Manchester, England, saying: “The America I love, the America I’ve written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”
Trump responded with a social media post demanding investigations into celebrities who endorsed former Vice President Kamala Harris, his opponent in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, including Springsteen.
Snopes has addressed similar satirical claims originating with ALLOD, including rumors that former Vice President Al Gore accepted a $90M luxury jet from the sultan of Kuwait and that U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, collected her dead grandmother’s Social Security checks.
