The Musical That Makes MAGA's Rebel Hearts Sing

When the U.S. Army Chorus marched into the White House's State Dining Room in February, singing the rousing anthem 'Do You Hear the People Sing?' from Les Misérables to President Donald Trump and his guests at the annual Governors Ball, some on the left read it as a cry of resistance.
'Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?' choral members sang as they flanked the black-tied attendees in the historic room. 'Do you hear the people sing? Say do you hear the distant drums? It is the future that we bring when tomorrow comes.'
The song has become the score for dozens of revolutionary movements since the musical, based on Victor Hugo's 1862 novel by the same name, debuted in the 1980s. In 2013, anti-government protesters in Ukraine sang it in Kyiv's central square as part of the Euromaidan demonstrations. In 2019, protesters in Hong Kong sang it in both English and Cantonese in defiance of the Chinese government. In 2024, South Korean protesters sang it outside the National Assembly after former President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law.
But what Democrats missed in their hopeful reading was how the song has in the last eight years become an unofficial anthem for the MAGA movement — with the Governors Ball only the latest example of how deep a root Les Mis has taken in Trump world. During the 2016 election, after Hillary Clinton made her infamous 'basket of deplorables' comment, Trump held a Les Mis-themed rally, entering to the song as the words 'Les Deplorables' were splashed on the screen — a tongue-in-cheek reclamation of Clinton's remarks that quickly became a rallying cry for his base. Trump's own lawyers have even invoked the musical's imagery of law and justice in court filings.
That is the backdrop against which Trump set foot in the president's box at the Kennedy Center Wednesday night, for the opening night of a four-week run of Les Mis.
For Trump world, the president's appearance marks a radical, almost subversive, triumph over the Kennedy Center — an institution that, in the eyes of the right, has become an effigy of the progressive cultural elite that has long excluded them. After largely ignoring the Kennedy Center his first term, never attending a performance, Trump in February purged 18 members from its board, replaced them with a slate of allies and selected longtime ally Richard Grenell to run it. Wednesday night was an operatic finale to those efforts.
As he stepped into view in the Opera House just moments before curtain, Trump received a warm round of applause from the crowd, followed by a hearty chorus of 'U-S-A,' underscored by a smaller chorus of boos. While intermission was bookended by one shout of 'Viva Los Angeles' from the crowd and another 'fuck Trump,' Trump received an otherwise positive reception, especially compared to the one Vice President JD Vance received in March while attending a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra.
Trump was joined on the box level by a host of other notables including Grenell, Vance, Second Lady Usha Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pam Bondi, among others. It was a striking visual underscoring that the Kennedy Center's MAGA takeover is complete.
'The first term, we largely ceded a lot of things,' said Sean Spicer, who served as press secretary during Trump's first administration. 'This time, it's like, 'Why would I do that?''
Set against a backdrop of political tumult in 19th-century France, Les Misérables tells the story of a ragtag group of impoverished Parisians — from the protagonist Jean Valjean, who was imprisoned 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving children, to the band of student revolutionaries who make a heroic stand during the anti-monarchist June Rebellion of 1832. Hugo, a staunch opponent of authoritarianism who lived most of his life in exile for his political views, saw his book as a call to action in the face of injustice. Its many winding plots offer a sweeping meditation on the human condition — on grace, justice, liberty, freedom and, above all, redemption.
The musical, adapted more than a century later, preserved much of that spirit but with Broadway flair. It is dramatic and bombastic, its over-the-top style emblematic of other musicals from the era, like Phantom of the Opera and Cats. Critics have alternatively praised and pilloried it for its overt sentimentality.
That Trump is a musical theater fan — and has a particular soft spot for 1980s mega-musicals — is no secret. Songs from Phantom, Cats and Les Mis have long peppered his rally playlists. In his 2004 book, Think Like a Billionaire, Trump declared Evita, the musical about Argentine political icon Eva Perón, was his favorite show, saying he had seen the original Broadway run six times.
But Les Mis has a special place in his heart, too. Before the show, Trump told reporters that he has seen Les Mis 'a number of times' and called it 'fantastic.' He even suggested in a recent Fox interview the Kennedy Center might extend Les Mis's run.
'I thought it was just about our first choice. That's what we got,' Trump said, about the show coming to the Kennedy Center. 'And we have others coming, other great ones are coming.' (Trump added that the first theater production he ever saw was Cats, while First Lady Melania Trump said hers was Phantom.)
In fact, Trump once aspired to be a Broadway producer. At 23, he co-produced a short-lived play with theater veteran David Black. In 2005, he flirted with turning his hit show The Apprentice into a musical.
'The president has an incredible aptitude for music and the arts,' said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, before the Wednesday night performance. 'That's why he is so excited about the much needed changes he is making to the Kennedy Center to restore it as an international icon for the arts.'
During his first visit to the Kennedy Center in March, following its MAGA takeover, Trump told a gathering of board members that he had shown a special aptitude for music in his childhood, according to a New York Times report on the meeting. The president said that he could pick out notes on the piano, but that he had never developed his musical talent as his father, Fred Trump, did not approve.
'I have a high aptitude for music,' he said, in the Times' retelling. 'Can you believe that?'
'That's why I love music,' he added.
Les Mis has occupied a persistent, if subtle, role in Trump's political career. Trump world sees itself in the musical's hardscrabble revolutionaries, and Trump in its unjustly persecuted protagonist, Valjean; their political opponents are the villainous Inspector Javert, who is so rigid in his worldview that he fails time and time again to offer compassion to the musical's broad cast of characters. It was Javert to whom one of Trump's lawyers compared the court-appointed monitor of the Trump Organization after Trump lost his business fraud trial last year. (Trump, asked before the show which character in Les Mis he identifies with — Jean Valjean or Javert — said that was 'a tough one.')
The impulse to see oneself as Valjean and opponents as Javert is centuries old, Hugo scholars say. Civil War soldiers on both sides read Les Misérables, then newly translated, around the campfire. Confederate troops even referred to themselves as 'Lee's Miserables,' in tribute to their leader Gen. Robert E. Lee.
'As a kind of a cultural resource, Les Misérables obviously gets simplified. It gets appropriated. You might say that's the destiny of any successful work — is to get transformed and changed and reused,' said David Bellos, a professor of French and Italian comparative literature at Princeton University. 'And Les Misérables is so rich that you can read a great number of different things into it.'
As such, Trump critics have offered alternative readings. Some see him and his administration as the merciless Javert using the power of law to tyrannize the American people — and themselves as the persecuted revolutionaries fighting back. Others see him as Thénardier, the dealmaking innkeeper who serves as the musical's comic relief. Like Thénardier, Trump is always onstage, always selling — and no matter how many times he's knocked down, he's always left standing.
And there are challenges with MAGA's reading of itself as the victorious French revolutionaries.
For one, the revolutionaries don't win. The musical's favorite rebels, Enjolras, Gavroche and Éponine among them, are all killed by French soldiers during the climactic battle at the barricade; Valjean himself later dies sequestered in a convent, having spent his life hiding from the law. (And the book ends, literally, with Valjean going unremembered, his tombstone blank.)
And while Les Mis is indeed populist, MAGA's affinity for it would seem to sit uncomfortably with the liberal causes that the protagonists champion. One of the themes more explicitly outlined in Hugo's book than the musical calls for universal property rights and the redistribution of wealth. (Hugo might have raised an eyebrow at the fact that some theatergoers Wednesday night paid $2 million to sit in a performance box and attend a VIP reception with Trump before the show, though the proceeds do go to support the Kennedy Center.) It's an apparent contradiction some in the movement hold in one hand with their love for the musical in the other.
'It's very populist. It appeals to our sensibilities in that regard,' said one Trump ally who is a musical theater fan, reflecting on that tension.
'But,' the person acknowledged, 'also it's crazy radical lefties — or at least that's implied in the musical — so that's not us.'
Hugo scholar Kathryn Grossman, a professor of French at Penn State University, described the tension bluntly: 'Trump has turned the Kennedy Center into an anti-woke arena. This musical is the most woke thing you could ever imagine. Totally woke.'
And as much as Wednesday night was a victory for Trump world, it was not an unmitigated one. A handful of cast members boycotted the show. And some critics pointed out the uncomfortable parallels from the day's headlines — armed troops squaring off against protesters in Los Angeles while on a Washington stage actors playing French soldiers assaulted the revolutionaries' barricades.
The creators of Les Mis have themselves shied away from taking political stances vis-à-vis Trump. Cameron Mackintosh — who in addition to Les Mis produced Cats and Phantom — was asked by Washingtonian before the play opened at the Kennedy Center during Trump's first term whether the musical had a particular resonance in Washington at that moment.
'You mean because of the political situation? Well, only that it's all about passionate beliefs, which certainly on both sides of the divide is what's happening in your country and indeed in ours,' Mackintosh said. 'People — particularly younger people — are feeling stronger about the way the world is governed than ever, and that is one of the themes that run through it.'
Milling in the halls of the Kennedy Center before the show, one Les Mis attendee, who voted for Trump, acknowledged the musical's political undertones, and its resonance for the MAGA movement.
'Look, I understand that there are some songs from Les Mis that are meaningful to him, that draw correlations. But isn't that what the arts are about?' said the attendee, who asked to remain anonymous. 'Like, it can mean something for one person and then mean another thing for another. That is what art is. Why do we have to look at it like, 'Oh, it's now all of a sudden evil, because this one person sees it in one way.' This is art.'
As for what he likes about Les Mis, his answer was simple: 'I just love a crescendo.'

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

9 minutes ago

Mahmoud Khalil released from Louisiana jail after 3+ months in ICE custody

A federal judge granted his release on bail, ruling the Trump administration was punishing him over his pro-Palestinian speech.

Yahoo

18 minutes ago

• Yahoo

How Trump has targeted Harvard's international students — and what the latest court ruling means

President Donald Trump and his administration have tried several tactics to block Harvard University's enrollment of international students, part of the White House's effort to secure policy changes at the private, Ivy League college. Targeting foreign students has become the administration's cornerstone effort to crack down on the nation's oldest and wealthiest college. The block on international enrollment, which accounts for a quarter of Harvard's students and much of its global allure, strikes at the core of Harvard's identity. Courts have stopped some of the government's actions, at least for now — but not all. In the latest court order, a federal judge on Friday put one of those efforts on hold until a lawsuit is resolved. But the fate of Harvard's international students — and its broader standoff with the Trump administration — remain in limbo. Here are all the ways the Trump administration has moved to block Harvard's foreign enrollment — and where each effort stands. Homeland Security tries to revoke Harvard's certification to host foreign students In May, the Trump administration tried to ban foreign students at Harvard, citing the Department of Homeland Security's authority to oversee which colleges are part of the Student Exchange and Visitor Program. The program allows colleges to issue documents that foreign students need to study in the United States. Harvard filed a lawsuit, arguing the administration violated the government's own regulations for withdrawing a school's certification. Within hours, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston put the administration's ban on hold temporarily — an order that had an expiration date. On Friday, she issued a preliminary injunction, blocking Homeland Security's move until the case is decided. That could take months or longer. The government can and does remove colleges from the Student Exchange and Visitor Program, making them ineligible to host foreign students on their campus. However, it's usually for administrative reasons outlined in law, such as failing to maintain accreditation, lacking proper facilities for classes, failing to employ qualified professional personnel — even failing to 'operate as a bona fide institution of learning.' Other colleges are removed when they close. Notably, Burroughs' order Friday said the federal government still has authority to review Harvard's ability to host international students through normal processes outlined in law. After Burroughs' emergency block in May, DHS issued a more typical 'Notice of Intent to Withdraw' Harvard's participation in the international student visa program. 'Today's order does not affect the DHS's ongoing administrative review,' Harvard said Friday in a message to its international students. 'Harvard is fully committed to compliance with the applicable F-1 (student visa) regulations and strongly opposes any effort to withdraw the University's certification.' Trump has sought to ban U.S. entry for incoming Harvard students Earlier this month, Trump himself moved to block entry to the United States for incoming Harvard students, issuing a proclamation that invoked a different legal authority. Harvard filed a court challenge attacking Trump's legal justification for the action — a federal law allowing him to block a 'class of aliens' deemed detrimental to the nation's interests. Targeting only those who are coming to the U.S. to study at Harvard doesn't qualify as a 'class of aliens,' Harvard said in its filing. Harvard's lawyers asked the court to block the action. Burroughs agreed to pause the entry ban temporarily, without giving an expiration date. She has not yet ruled on Harvard's request for another preliminary injunction, which would pause the ban until the court case is decided. 'We expect the judge to issue a more enduring decision in the coming days,' Harvard told international students Friday. At the center of Trump's pressure campaign against Harvard are his assertions that the school has tolerated anti-Jewish harassment, especially during pro-Palestinian protests. In seeking to keep Harvard students from coming to the U.S., he said Harvard is not a suitable destination. Harvard President Alan Garber has said the university has made changes to combat antisemitism and will not submit to the administration's demands for further changes. The administration has stepped up scrutiny of Harvard scholars' and students' visas In late May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed U.S. embassies and consulates to start reviewing social media accounts of visa applicants who plan to attend, work at or visit Harvard University for any signs of antisemitism. On Wednesday, the State Department said it was launching new vetting of social media accounts for foreigners applying for student visas, and not just those seeking to attend Harvard. Consular officers will be on the lookout for posts and messages that could be deemed hostile to the United States, its government, culture, institutions or founding principles, the department said, telling visa applicants to set their social media accounts to 'public.' In reopening the visa process, the State Department also told consulates to prioritize students hoping to enroll at colleges where foreigners make up less than 15% of the student body, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to detail information that has not been made public. Foreign students make up more than 15% of the total student body at almost 200 U.S. universities — including Harvard and the other Ivy League schools, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal education data from 2023. Most are private universities, including all eight Ivy League schools. Some Harvard students are also caught up in the government's recent ban against travel to the U.S. by citizens of 12 nations, mostly in Africa and the Middle East. The Trump administration last weekend called for 36 additional countries to commit to improving vetting of travelers or face a ban on their citizens visiting the United States. International students make up half the students at some Harvard programs Harvard sponsors more than 7,000 people on a combination of F-1 and J-1 visas, which are issued to students and to foreigners visiting the U.S. on exchange programs such as fellowships. Across all the schools that make up the university, about 26% of the student body is from outside the U.S. But some schools and programs, by nature of their subject matter, have significantly more international students. At the Harvard Kennedy School, which covers public policy and public administration, 49% of students are on F-1 visas. In the business school, one-third of students come from abroad. And within the law school, 94% of the students in the master's program in comparative law are international students. The administration has imposed a range of sanctions on Harvard since it rejected the government's demands for policy reforms related to campus protests, admissions, hiring and more. Conservatives say the demands are merited, decrying Harvard as a hotbed of liberalism and antisemitism. Harvard says the administration is illegally retaliating against the university. ____ The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at

The Hill

19 minutes ago

• The Hill

Where US troops in Mideast are most at risk of Iran strike

The Big Story Tens of thousands of U.S. troops are within Iran's striking distance should President Trump decide to wade into Israel's conflict with Tehran and directly attack the country. © Alex Brandon, Associated Press More than 40,000 American service members and civilians — as well as billions of dollars in military equipment — are in the Middle East, spread out across bases in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Those working in countries closest to Iran, including Iraq and Kuwait, would conceivably have only minutes to prepare for an incoming Iranian strike, a likely outcome should Trump order the U.S. military to join Israel's bombing campaign, experts say. 'If [Iran] had the ballistic missiles ready to go, those strikes could happen in under 15 minutes. Launched to target,' retired Col. Seth Krummrich, vice president at security consultancy firm Global Guardian, told The Hill. 'They move very quickly.' Israel last week unleashed a barrage of airstrikes on Iran that set off the largest conflict ever between the two regional adversaries, with Tehran responding with its own attacks. The war has threatened to pull in the U.S., which says it supports Israel's right to defend itself but has not directly involved itself in the bombing. Trump has not yet decided on possible American military action against Iran, telling reporters through his top spokesperson that he would make his decision within two weeks. But Iran has already threatened to directly attack U.S. forces should they enter Israel's war campaign, with the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Wednesday that 'Americans should know that any U.S. military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage.' Tehran's threats aren't idle, as the country has retaliated against Washington in the past, most notably in January 2020, when Trump in his first term ordered an airstrike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force. The strike, which happened as Soleimani traveled to Baghdad, prompted a swift response from Iran, which days later hammered Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq and another U.S. base in Erbil with 13 ballistic missiles. While no Americans were killed in the largest ballistic missile attack ever against U.S. forces abroad, more than 100 were later diagnosed and treated for traumatic brain injuries. Now, with Trump reportedly considering using the GBU-57 — known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator or so-called bunker buster bomb — to damage Iran's Fordow nuclear enrichment facility, a similar attack from Tehran could soon be at hand. Read the full report at Welcome to The Hill's Defense & National Security newsletter, I'm Ellen Mitchell — your guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here. Essential Reads How policy will affect defense and national security now and inthe future: Trump: 'Hard' for Israel to stop strikes now President Trump said Friday it would be difficult for Israel to stop strikes on Iran at this point, a week into the intense conflict between the two nations and two weeks out from the president's decision on U.S. involvement. 'I think it's very hard to make that request right now,' he said when pressed about the Iranian foreign minister saying that the U.S. would call on Israel to stop airstrikes if Trump is serious about … Democrat: Trump 2-week Iran deadline 'not a bad thing' Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) tepidly praised President Trump on his handling of the ongoing military conflict between Israel and Iran, after the president said he would wait two weeks to decide whether to take direct action against Iran. 'The fact that we're not reading about a U.S. attack on Iran right now actually gives me a little bit of comfort,' the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee told independent … Israel, Iran trade strikes as Trump weighs US military involvement Israel and Iran traded strikes on Friday as President Trump weighs the possibility of U.S. involvement and European officials seek to revive nuclear negotiations with Tehran. Israel said it hit 60 Iranian aircrafts early Friday morning along with the headquarters of the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, which carries out nuclear weapons research, according to the Associated Press. Iranian media said Israel's … On Our Radar Upcoming things we're watching on our beat: In Other News Branch out with a different read from The Hill: DHS places new limits on lawmakers visiting ICE facilities The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is placing new limitations on lawmakers seeking to visit detention facilities, releasing guidelines in the wake of visits from Democrats that have turned confrontational. Members of Congress have the legal right to make unannounced visits to U.S. Immigration … On Tap Monday Events in and around the defense world: What We're Reading News we've flagged from other outlets: Trending Today Two key stories on The Hill right now: Senate parliamentarian knocks pieces out of Trump's megabill Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has ruled that several key pieces of the massive bill to implement President Trump's agenda run afoul of … Read more Supreme Court rules against FDA, EPA 12:30 Report is The Hill's midday newsletter. Subscribe here or using the box below: Close Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters … Read more Opinions in The Hill Op-eds related to defense & national security submitted to The Hill: You're all caught up. See you next week! Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here