Breaking Down Why Zach Bryan's New Song, ‘Bad News’, Has Sparked Outrage From Trump Supporters

Another week, another controversy involving Zach Bryan. It often feels as though the country megastar is walking rage-bait, whether it's his stunt of jumping the fence and confronting Gavin Adcock at Born & Raised, or (allegedly) putting pictures of his Barstool Sports nemesis, Dave Portnoy, in the urinals at his show.

This time, though, the furore engulfing Bryan is not the result of his alcohol-fuelled behaviour or social media posts - rather, it's been sparked by the lyrics to a brand new song.

The ‘Something in the Orange’ hitmaker has made a habit of flooding his Instagram page with unreleased demos and acoustic snippets, many of which never end up seeing the light of day on streaming services. So when Bryan took to socials to share a clip of another new track, seemingly titled ‘Bad News’, this was nothing out of the ordinary. It wasn't long, however, before fans noticed a few eye-catching lyrics, which have subsequently led to backlash from some listeners.

It finds Bryan reflecting on the state of the US at the moment, with the Oklahoma native offering a criticism of the ICE raids that have been carried out under the Trump administration. ICE officials have drawn widespread criticism for their often forceful and aggressive pursuit of undocumented immigrants living in the US, with many citizens taking to the streets to protest these mass deportations.

On ‘Bad News’, Bryan begins by crooning forlornly, “Didn’t wake up dead or in jail / Some out of town boys been giving us hell / I got some bad news / I woke up missing you / My friends are all degenerates but they’re all I got / The generational story of dropping the plot / I heard the cops came / Cocky mother******* ain’t they?” Some have interpreted this as a reference to his arrest in 2023.

He goes on, “And ICE is gonna come, bust down your door / Try to build a house no one builds no more / But I got a telephone / Kids are all scared and all alone / The Boss stopped bumping, the rock stopped rolling / The middle fingers rising and it won’t stop showing / I got some bad news / The fading of the red, white and blue”. ‘The Boss’ is a nod to Bryan's friend and collaborator, Bruce Springsteen.

It's the line, “And ICE is gonna come, bust down your door”, that has a number of Trump supporters and conservative-leaning fans riled up. They're also irked by the general tone of ‘Bad News’, with Bryan lamenting the rapidly “fading” state of America.

The ICE raids have been condemned by many, and there have been some horror stories about the impact of these deportations. One interpretation of ’Bad News’ is that Bryan is simply expressing his sympathy for those who are living in fear of these officials targeting them, rather than making a broader dig at Trump's US.

Many, though, have taken ‘Bad News’ as a rare political statement from Bryan. The country-folk singer-songwriter usually steers clear of the political arena, save for a few random photos with Trump at the Super Bowl last year and a social media post championing the President's response to his attempted assassination.

Due to these, it's often been assumed that Bryan leans more towards the right than the left, but - particularly after this track - it's unclear what his political allegiances are.

Vocal conservative and Big & Rich member, John Rich, has wasted no time in responding to ‘Bad News’, resharing an article on Bryan's new song via X, alongside the caption, “Nashville is full of guys like this”. In turn, Jake Owen has replied, declaring, “He's a [toolbox emoji]”, which presumably means he's calling Bryan a ‘tool’.

While it's a (very slim) possibility that Rich was using the rather vague line “Nashville is full of guys like this” to praise Bryan and other artists in Music City for speaking up on behalf of people who are suffering, we suspect he meant it as a barb. The irony, of course, is that Bryan famously hates Nashville and what it stands for.

Given how troubling so many of Bryan's actions have been over the past 12 months, with the ‘I Remember Everything’ chart-topper being accused by his ex, Brianna LaPaglia, of emotional abuse, as well as telling a 14-year-old fan to “get off my d***“, it feels somewhat strange that this is the thing to kick off the biggest commotion.

Few artists came out and commented on LaPaglia's allegations, yet this relatively innocuous lyric about ICE was deemed enough for the likes of Rich and Owen to weigh in.

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