Overview

• At Chicago’s Riot Fest, the band decapitated an Elon Musk mannequin with a fake chainsaw and staged a Donald Trump disembowelment during its set.
• Short video clips spread widely on social media, and conservative commentators condemned the scenes as promoting or normalizing political violence.
• Frontman Michael “Blöthar the Berserker” Bishop told Billboard the show was a cartoonish “parody of violence” and rejected claims it encourages harm.
• Riot Fest mocked the outrage on X, describing viral posts as engagement bait and casting the attention as free publicity.
• Coverage highlights GWAR’s decades of similar theatrics targeting figures across the spectrum, and there are no reports of investigations or sanctions as of this week.