ROCK

Green Day's 'American Idiot' Re-Enters British Charts Before Trump Visit

7/10/2018 by Gil Kaufman

Lex van Rossen/MAI/Redferns
Green Day

The 2004 track has bounced up to No. 18.

Donald Trump is about to get a very rude reception on his latest overseas trip. The American president is slated to touch down in the UK on Thursday (July 12) for a four-day visit that is shaping up to be a magnet for anti-Trump protesters. By now you've likely heard about the 20-foot tall diapered "Big Baby" balloon that London mayor Sadiq Khan has green-lit to fly over the city during Trump's stay. But the former Celebrity Apprentice star will also get a dose of harsh reality if he turns on the radio during his stay.     

Thanks to a social media campaign launched in May by a Twitter group calling itself "American Idiot For UK No. 1 When Trump Visits" encouraging Brits to push Green Day's 2004 hit "American Idiot" to No. 1 on the singles charts, the track is currently No. 18 on the Official Charts tally, even as it hits No. 1 on Amazon's best-seller list. The song was originally written about Pres. George W. Bush and features the refrain "Welcome to a new kind of tension/ All across the alien nation/ Where everything isn't mean to be okay/ Television dreams of tomorrow/ We're not the ones who're meant to follow." According to The Guardian, British police are mobilizing the biggest detachment of officers since the 2011's widespread national riots, with thousands of cops being deployed as if "London was burning down," said on chief constable.

Trump reportedly asked British Prime Minister Theresa May to block all the protests upon his arrival, which she told him was not possible; Trump canceled a visit to London earlier this year for the opening of the new U.S. embassy building saying he disapproved of the deal made by the Obama administration (though actually the George W. Bush administration) to sell the old U.S. consulate for "peanuts."

Sen. Tim Kaine tweeted a reference to the "Idiot" campaign last week when he mocked Trump following reports that the president had gifted North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un with a signed copy of Elton John's "Rocket Man" single during Sec. of State Mike Pompeo's recent trip to the repressive nation for nuclear disarmament talks. 

Trump is expected to stay in London on the first night of his visit, but due to the planned massive protests he will then move on to Oxfordshire and spend two days in his mother's birthplace in Scotland before traveling to Helsinki for a summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin.