Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong holds up Trump 'head' at DC concert month after assassination attempt

Green Day used to be the voice of the anti-establishment, but in recent years the band has gone all in for Democrats and become another voice in the progressive chorus. At a concert in Washington, DC on Monday night, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong held up a Trump "head," a mask of the former president and GOP candidate for president, with the word "idiot" emblazoned on the forehead.

An assassination attempt was made on Trump's life in Butler, Penn. on July 13. He was shot in the ear while rally attendee Corey Comperatore was killed by the would-be assassin's fire as he protected his family from the hail of bullets. Two other men were injured.

The mask was tossed to Armstrong by an audience member, and Armstrong embraced it and held it out to the crowd, prompting USA Today to note "the crowd roared." On New Year's Eve 2023, Armstrong lambasted Trump in altered lyrics to his American Idiot, saying he was "not part of the MAGA agenda" in place of "a redneck agenda."

In response to their lyrics change, X owner Elon Musk joked "Green Day goes from raging against the machine to milquetoastedly raging for it." The recent stunt recalls comedian Kathy Griffin's 2017 post holding up a severed Trump head. Last year, she posted an image of Biden DOJ special counsel Jack Smith holding up that head.

Trump has been a frequent topic at rock shows. Jack Black and Kyle Gass of Tenacious D recently cancelled their tour after Gass joked during a stop in Australia that he wished the would-be Trump assassin "didn't miss."

Armstrong, who co-founded the band in 1987, was among the entertainers who required audience members to take an experimental Covid vaccine prior to attending their concerts in 2021. In 2019, Armstrong and the band took aim at the then-president, chanting a refrain that would become a hallmark of George Floyd/Covid riots the next summer, "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA."