Overview

• Young introduced the protest song on Aug. 27 in Chicago during his Love Earth tour with the Chrome Hearts, then shared a soundcheck recording and full lyrics on his Neil Young Archives site.
• The lyrics denounce soldiers on city streets and repeatedly claim there is "big crime in D.C. at the White House," with lines calling to "get the fascists out" and to "blackout the system."
• Coverage frames the song as a response to President Donald Trump’s Aug. 11 declaration of a public crime emergency and his deployment of National Guard troops and federal agents in the capital.
• Reporting notes nearly 1,200 arrests since the deployment and cites U.S. Attorney’s Office data indicating violent crime in Washington had recently fallen to its lowest level in decades.
• Vice President JD Vance said the Guard presence is not intended to be indefinite, and Trump has floated expanding federal policing to additional cities.