The U.S. Army Chorus raised eyebrows Sunday night when it performed the “Les Misérables” song “Do You Hear the People Sing?” — a ballad about fighting tyranny — at the White House Governors’ Ball, attended by President Donald Trump and other high-ranking administration officials.
The chorus was greeted by cheers as its members sang the closing song from the hit 1980 musical about the Paris Uprising of 1832, an anti-monarchist insurrection:
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?
Trump has played the song before, including at rallies during his 2016 and 2024 presidential campaigns, seemingly to paint his campaigns as insurgencies against tyrannical Democratic presidencies. But people on social media questioned whether the chorus’ choice to perform the song now — as Trump critics worry he is moving the United States toward autocracy — may have been a protest, and argued Trump and his supporters were tone-deaf in their cheers and missed the message.
