Donald Trump’s tweeting habits have been mocked by the hosts of the Country Music Awards (CMA), provoking anger from the event’s Republican fanbase.
Hosts Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley opened the 51st annual awards show with a parody song about the US president’s late-night tweeting and his habit of shortening names.
The song began with the lyrics “maybe next time he’ll think before he tweets”, a play on Underwood’s hit song ‘Before he cheats’.
It went on: “Right now he’s probably in his PJs, watching cable news, reaching for his cell phone.
“It’s fun to watch it that’s for sure, ’til little ‘Rocket Man’ starts a nuclear war.
“Maybe next time he’ll think before he tweets.”
The country music stars wore eclipse sunglasses, poking fun at Mr Trump’s attempt to watch a part of August’s solar eclipse without eye protection.
But the parody sketch did not go down well with the show’s Trump-supporting viewers, who took to Twitter to hit out at the music show’s political overtone.
The furore is the latest in an ongoing debate over whether or not the event should be politicised following controversial guidelines from the award ceremony’s bosses.
Last week the CMA association sent a memo to the press threatening to remove journalists who made the event political by asking questions relating to the mass shooting in Texas last Thursday.
The guidelines stated: “In light of recent events, and out of respect for the artists directly or indirectly involved, please refrain from focusing your coverage of the CMA Awards Red Carpet and Backstage Media Center on the Las Vegas tragedy, gun rights, political affiliations or topics of the like.”
Credit:
Taylor Hill
The association later withdrew the guidelines following criticism from country music stars, including host Mr Paisley.
The artist tweeted on Thursday: “I’m sure the CMA will do the right thing and rescind these ridiculous and unfair press guidelines.”
Ahead of the show, the co-hosts said there were going to be “equal opportunity offenders” when it came to their parody material.
“It’s not about any political party or any person…it’s just about making fun of things that are funny,” Mr Paisley told the TV show Good Morning America.
Last year the artist made political jokes about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, calling his co-host “crooked Carrie”, a reference to Mr Trump’s repeated jibes of “crooked Hillary” during the presidential campaign.
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