JD Vance shows off his new walk-on music – a Merle Haggard song about ‘liberating’ America

Keen listeners at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and Trump rally in Michigan this week may have noticed a subtle development on the campaign trail: JD Vance officially has a walk-on song.

On the surface, the track, 2005’s “America First” by country legend Merle Haggard, seems like a solid fit.

After all, it shares a name with one of Donald Trump’s signature slogans, and has lyrics that gel with his criticisms of foreign wars.

“Why don’t we liberate these United States/ We’re the ones need it the worst/ Let the rest of the world help us for a change/ And let’s rebuild America first,” goes one part of the song.

The song was written during the Iraq War, a conflict JD Vance served in but has also criticized.

“When I was a senior in high school, that same Joe Biden supported the disastrous invasion of Iraq,” Vance said at the RNC. “From Iraq to Afghanistan, from the financial crisis to the great recession, from open borders to stagnating wages, the people who govern this country have failed and failed again.”

What Vance didn’t mention is that Donald Trump also initially supported the Iraq war.

In a 2002 interview with Howard Stern, the radio host asked Trump if he supported the invasion.

«Yeah, I guess so,» Trump responded. «I wish the first time it was done correctly.»

Trump has later falsely claimed he opposed the war since before it began.

The mismatch with “America First” may go beyond just Trump’s record of foreign policy opinions.

Haggard, while he was alive, resisted attempts to be claimed by one party or another.

“There are things I go for on both sides of the fence,” he once explained to Variety. “I can’t be called one or the other, because if I was one of ‘em, I’d want to be the other one.”

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