The White House didn’t take too kindly to Jack White‘s recent criticism of the building’s decor under Donald Trump‘s second presidential term, with one official lambasting the musician as a “loser” in a new statement.
In a Tuesday comment to Daily Beast, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung fired back at the rock star — who’d slammed the revamped interior of the president’s official home as “vulgar, gold leafed and gaudy” the day prior — by calling White a “washed up, has-been loser posting drivel on social media because he clearly has ample time on his hands due to his stalled career.”
“It’s apparent he’s been masquerading as a real artist, because he fails to appreciate, and quite frankly disrespects, the splendor and significance of the Oval Office inside of ‘The People’s House,’” Cheung added.
The harsh remarks follow White’s heated Aug. 18 post on Instagram, in which he’d shared a photo of Trump speaking with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office and written, “Look at how disgusting trump has transformed the historic White House.”
“Look at his disgusting taste, would you even buy a used car from this conman, let alone give him the nuclear codes?” the former White Stripes band member had added in the post, which was “liked” by Olivia Rodrigo and Maren Morris. “What an embarrassment to American history.”
As it turns out, though, White wasn’t finished. Shortly after Cheung spoke to Daily Beast, the 12-time Grammy winner reshared the director’s words in a follow-up Instagram post calling Cheung a “professional liar.”
White also unleashed several more paragraphs detailing his dislike of the president and calling out the White House for commenting on such a superficial matter while ignoring criticisms of Trump’s handling of more important issues. “How petty and pathetic and thin skinned could this administration get?” he wrote. “‘Masquerading as a real artist?’ … Trump is masquerading as a human being. He’s masquerading as a Christian, as a leader, as a person with actual empathy.”
Sharing various photos of Trump holding up flashy gold sneakers, posing with Goya products and showing Zelenskyy a shelf stocked with red “Make America Great Again” caps, White also added in his caption, “This man is a danger to not just America, but the entire world, and that’s not an exaggeration, he’s dismantling democracy and endangering the planet on a daily basis.”
White has never been shy about vocalizing his opinions on Trump, whom he called an “obvious fascist” and “wannabe dictator” in November after the billionaire won the 2024 election. Before that, Jack and his ex-wife/former White Stripes bandmate sued Trump for using “Seven Nation Army” in a social media post.
At a concert in March, the guitarist also changed the opening line of his song “Corporation” — which usually goes “I’m thinking about starting a corporation, who’s with me?” — to mock the twice-impeached POTUS. “I’m thinking about not being elected,” he said on stage. “Never holding a public office. Never serving one day of military service. But somehow having the authority to control parts of the U.S. Government. Who’s with me?”
