Rod Stewart Takes on Trump with Highly Political Message of Support for Ukraine

Rod Stewart intervened in the White House race on Friday to call for help for Ukraine — and by implication an attack on Donald Trump.

The British rock veteran used an appearance at a stadium concert in Cleveland, Ohio, to explicitly call for continued support for Ukraine, calling the Russian invasion “evil” and showing photos of the toll it has taken on the country’s people.

Stewart, 79, has rarely spoken publicly on political issues, but he has recently become a Trump critic, ending a years-long friendship with his Palm Beach neighbor and saying his wife had called the former president a “disgrace.” In August, he mocked Trump for “turning orange,” a reference to the former president saying his rival, Kamala Harris, had “turned black.”

Hugh Dougherty

But this explicitly political approach is new. At a concert with Billy Joel, Stewart changed outfits between songs, appearing onstage in bright blue pants and a shirt and a bright yellow jacket. “These are the colors of a flag — the flag of Ukraine,” he told a crowd of about 40,000. “There’s an evil war going on in Ukraine. Russia has invaded Ukraine. This song is for Ukraine, for its soldiers. For (Volodymyr) Zelensky.”

“And whoever is next in the White House, don’t stop helping Ukraine,” Stewart added, before singing his hit “Sailing” over footage of the war in Ukraine and, in the final chorus, a photo of Zelensky.

The message of support in the midst of the war, delivered in a city that is home to one of the country’s largest Ukrainian-American communities, puts Stewart at direct odds with Trump. While Democratic nominee Harris used Tuesday night’s presidential debate to pledge unwavering support for Zelenskyy and his country’s war effort, Trump made no such promise. Instead, he said he would end the war before he even returned to office, suggesting he would be able to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to end it.

While he did not specify how he would proceed, he sharply criticized President Joe Biden’s refusal to talk or negotiate with Putin, which his critics said would mean he would force Ukraine to give up territory and renounce its NATO membership. Harris seized on those comments Tuesday as evidence that he would cave to strongmen and dictators.

Trump has also refused to commit to continuing the massive military aid from U.S. stockpiles, which Zelensky has said is crucial to the country’s ability to contain Russian troops — and must be bolstered to prevent further Ukrainian losses. U.S. equipment currently in use on the battlefield includes HIMAR medium-range missiles, Bradley fighting vehicles, the Patriot missile defense system and, in recent weeks, F-16 fighter jets, which the Ukrainians have long demanded to counter Russian air superiority.

Rather than committing to aid in the debate, Trump suggested that Harris and Biden had failed to get the Europeans to contribute enough to the war effort. Zelensky has pressed Republicans to commit to continued military aid, but has had little success with the party’s MAGA wing. Earlier this month, the Ukrainian president hosted South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham in Kiev. Graham is one of the few members of the Republican foreign policy establishment who is close to Trump, and the move was seen as an attempt to secure a defender in the White House should Trump return to the Oval Office.