Draft-dodging Donald Trump has still not figured out that “Fortunate Son” is a protest song about people like him.
Trump, 79, took to Truth Social on Saturday to post a video of the U.S.’s legally dubious smash-and-grab abduction of Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro, set to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s anti-draft dodger protest anthem.
The footage shows U.S. Delta Force planes dropping bombs in Caracas. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed the strikes were needed to “protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant” on Nicolás Maduro, who the U.S. has accused of leading a narcoterrorist cartel.
The Venezuelan government claims the bombs killed untold numbers of Venezuelan civilians and military personnel. Trump later said on Fox News that he enjoyed watching the attacks play out like a “TV show” from Mar-a-Lago.
“Fortunate Son,” written by John Fogerty in 1969 at the height of the Vietnam War, expresses anger about powerful young men using their family connections to avoid the draft.
In his autobiography, Fogerty wrote of the song, “You’d hear about the son of this senator or that congressman who was given a deferment from the military or a choice position in the military. They seemed privileged and whether they liked it or not, these people were symbolic in the sense that they weren’t being touched by what their parents were doing."
“Fortunate Son” has long been recognized as an anti-war protest song, but has also been widely misused in patriotic, pro-American contexts. It was notably used in a 2002 commercial for Wrangler jeans, to which Fogerty said, “I’m very much against my song being used to sell pants.”
Donald Trump, who himself dodged the Vietnam War draft by securing a dubious “bone spurs” diagnosis, used the song during a 2020 campaign rally. Fogerty, who is a military veteran, said he was “baffled” by the choice and handed him a cease-and-desist letter, noting Trump’s status as a draft dodger.
Representatives for Fogerty did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Trump made the “Fortunate Son” post at 11:16 a.m. Saturday morning, 16 minutes after he was supposed to start a press conference addressing Maduro’s overnight abduction.
When Trump finally started speaking after a 40-minute delay, he slurred through a speech in which he admitted that he wanted to grab Venezuela’s untapped oil reserves. He also said that the U.S. would “run” the country until it was “safe” for it to leave.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” said Trump.
He later added, “We’re going to have our very large United States put up companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, to go in, spend billions of dollars to fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.”
