A Grammy-winning rock legend has slammed one of President Donald Trump’s most controversial rebrands–twice.
John Mellencamp, 74, diverted during one of his biggest hits to mock Trump, 80, during a concert on Saturday in Holmdel, New Jersey, as reported by Billboard on Monday.
Video of the show shared online sees Mellencamp ad-libbing after the line, “Well, there’s people and more people, what do they know... go to work in some high-rise and vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico,” from his 1983 hit “Pink Houses.”
The song was written as a satire of the American dream and reached No.8 on the Billboard charts. Mellencamp has sold over 60 million albums, with hits including “Jack and Diane,” “Hurts So Good,” “Cherry Bomb” and “Small Town.”
On Saturday, while his band kept playing the song, Mellencamp sarcastically addressed the lyric the audience had just sung along with.
“The Gulf of Mexico? Is that right?” he said. “It’s not the Gulf of America?” The audience could be heard shouting “No!” before he said, “What a stupid f–--ing idea that is!” and continued with the song.
On Sunday, Mellencamp riffed on the same theme while playing “Pink Houses” at the Jones Beach Theater.
“Is it really still the Gulf of Mexico?” he asked the crowd in Wantagh, New York, who could be heard shouting “Yes!”
“They changed the name of it, but I’m not buying it,” the musician said. “It’s the Gulf of Mexico. F--- Gulf of America. That’s just not right.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
In January 2025, Trump insisted the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the “Gulf of America” in an executive order. This year, the president revealed he actually wanted to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of Trump,” but settled on the “Gulf of America” instead.
“I was going to call it the Gulf of Trump, but I thought I would be killed if I did that,” Trump said at the White House.
“The Gulf of Trump. That does have a good ring, though. Maybe we could do that. It’s not too late,” he said, adding, “We have the Gulf of America now, it’s great.”
Trump said he was “always bothered” by the name of the Gulf of Mexico.
“I’d say, you know, we have most of the shoreline. Mexico has a small percentage... about eight percent. We have 92 percent. And I said, why? Why is it the Gulf of Mexico? It should be the Gulf of America,” Trump claimed.
In reality, the water and shoreline between the U.S. and Mexico in the Gulf are nearly evenly shared between the two countries. Cuba claims a little over five percent of the waters as well.
Mellencamp has previously pointed out how “Pink Houses” has been “misconstrued” over the years due to the sing-along “rah-rah” chorus.
“But it’s really an anti-American song,” Mellencamp told Rolling Stone in 2013. “The American dream had pretty much proven itself as not working anymore. It was another way for me to sneak something in.”
In 2018, Mellencamp called Trump a “madman” during a press conference for the Farm Aid benefit show, claiming that his tariffs could have catastrophic effects on American farmers.
Mellencamp won a Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for “Hurts So Good” in 1983, and has been nominated 14 times.
