Jesse Welles is the Pete Seeger of the Trump times. Posting his simple videos on TikTok, the 32-year-old has become popular for his understated political lyrics and catchy folk melodies.
Take his ‘Join Ice’ hit:
“If you’re in need of a gig that’ll help you feel big, come with me and put some folks in detention,” he deadpans in one song, a scathing critique of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. “We can sneak around town, hunting working folks down, I hear they get a great benefit plan.”
Accompanied only by his acoustic guitar, listeners have compared him to Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan with his ripped-from-the-headlines songs.
Here’s his latest, ‘Masks Off.’
i can’t tell you what’s worse
the message was terse
outright white supremecists
or america first
i think they both sell merch
the whole place seems a little bit cursed
it’s like somebody might have been
living here first
incels in cellars from a long line of failures
underneath rumble umbrellas daily wire’ing with the fellas
chromag maga hate cave dwellers
the tale is older than the tellers
the tail is older than old yeller
the internet is incarnate
manifested, given birth
there’s some spillage in a village
near where i’m living here on earth
it’s a disgrace to the natural state
there ain’t much that ain’t
hey bill
hey billy
hey Sarah
hey tom
hey mike
everything is constantly unlike anything you’ve ever seen before
everything is greater than it’s ever been before
pardon the progress
hate is part of the process
catastrophic nostalgia
and delusions of freedom
i think we ate the last apple
in the garden eden
all the masks are off and they don’t even try
they know that you know that they know
and they don’t even mind it
all the masks are off
and they’re getting lazy
they think yer so damn stupid
they think yer so damn crazy
killing people from a distance in an instant
at the insistence of a president
with a black mail gun to his head for the fun that he had in the dark ages
pages and pages and pages and pages
they thought they’d get away with it
the minimum wage is outraged with it
they’re gonna burn somebody at the stake for it
fruit of the doom
oranges and grapists
hold on to yer vapes kids
icicles and alligators
and blood traitors
and purveyors of strange behaviors
and masqueraders and masked invaders
layers and layers and layers
be good to yer god
and be good to yer bayer
take yer aspirin and yer roundup
and say all yer prayers