The country singer whose criticism of one president got her blacklisted by country radio has now drawn a response from the current White House aimed squarely at the size of her brain.
The White House called The Chicks singer Natalie Maines a “despicable nobody” in a statement to Fox News Digital on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, answering remarks she made about President Donald Trump from the stage of New York City’s Beacon Theatre.
“Natalie Maines is a despicable nobody who clearly suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted her peanut-sized brain,” the statement said.
A Big Wet Kiss for Bush
Maines, who turned 52 on Oct. 14, stood onstage with bandmates Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire on Monday, Oct. 12, for one of three Beacon Theatre dates on The Chicks’ “Taking the Long Way 20th Anniversary Tour.” Before she spoke, the band screened a vintage montage of TV pundits and ordinary people in uproar over the notion that someone might not like a sitting president.
“Now I’d give George (W.) Bush a big wet kiss,” Maines told the crowd, adding, “’Cause now we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from the United States.” She vowed to the room that she would “never” give in to the “shut up and sing” crowd, and described the group’s one-time belief that the 2003 backlash was as bad as things could possibly get.
Later in the show she turned to the Obamas, praising “all the positive things they did and continue to do,” then drew a line between that era and this one. “So different than the deranged nut job we have right now,” she said later. Fans split over it. Some applauded her, while one complained online that a $1,500 ticket had come with politics attached to the music.
Death Threats Serious Enough for the FBI
The Beacon remarks were a deliberate callback to March 10, 2003, when Maines told a London audience, as the U.S. prepared to invade Iraq, that the president of the United States came from Texas and her band was ashamed of it. Country radio pulled their singles. Fellow country artists told them to be quiet, conservative commentators branded them unpatriotic, and fans organized boycotts and protests. The FBI stepped in as the death threats grew serious enough to warrant it.
The group answered in 2006 with “Taking the Long Way,” produced by Rick Rubin, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums. The album took best country album and the top prize, album of the year, at the 2007 Grammys. Lead single “Not Ready to Make Nice” climbed to No. 4 on the Hot 100 and collected three Grammys, including song and record of the year. Out of the controversy also came the song “Easy Silence” and the documentary “Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing.”
Nashville never fully welcomed them back. “Not Ready to Make Nice” stalled at No. 36 on Hot Country Songs, a chart where the band had six No. 1s and 15 top 10s before 2003. Their highest placing there since has been No. 20, with “Gaslighter” in 2020. Maines, a Texas native, joined the group in 1995, and The Chicks, formerly The Dixie Chicks, have taken home 13 Grammy Awards in the years since.
The band performed “Goodbye Earl” during the 2016 DCX MMXVI World Tour in front of a backdrop showing Trump defaced as the devil. A profanity-filled Instagram message from Maines in May blasted Trump’s $1.7 billion taxpayer-funded plan to pay allies who were investigated during the Biden years. The White House answered that post with a similar “despicable nobody” statement.
The tour plays the 2006 album start to finish, then a “best of” encore, and runs through early November. Remaining stops include Seattle and San Francisco before the run closes Nov. 3 at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre.
