Natalie Maines stood onstage at Manhattan's Beacon Theatre last Monday and told the crowd she would now give George W. Bush “a big wet kiss,” because, in her words, “now we're ashamed the president of the United States is from the United States.” The line landed as a direct inversion of the remark that upended her career more than two decades earlier, and it did not take long for the White House to respond.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle issued a statement Thursday calling Maines a “despicable nobody” whose “peanut-sized brain” had been rotted by “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” according to US Weekly. The statement came three calendar days after Maines's October 12 performance, during which the Chicks frontwoman also told the Beacon Theatre audience she would never bow to critics who tell artists to “shut up and sing,” as reported by the Washington Times.
As MassLive reports, Maines played a montage about the band's 2003 backlash during the Manhattan show and called Trump a deranged nut job. Maines, who attended Berklee College of Music in Boston during the 1990s before joining the group, has spent her career navigating the fallout from a single sentence she delivered on a London stage.
A 23-Year-Old Wound Reopened
The original controversy began on March 10, 2003, at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire theatre, 10 days before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, when Maines told concertgoers the band was ashamed President Bush was from Texas, according to historical reporting from TIME. That remark triggered nationwide radio bans and public CD burnings. The group — Maines alongside Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire — weathered a backlash that reshaped their commercial fortunes for years afterward, per MassLive.
This was not an isolated flashpoint for Maines and the current administration. In May 2026, Ingle released a nearly identical statement attacking Maines after she posted an Instagram message accusing Trump of eroding democracy and misusing $1.8 billion in federal funds, according to Taste of Country. In that post, Maines wrote that her democracy was disappearing, per MassLive's reporting. Taste of Country also reported that Ingle responded to Joni Mitchell after she criticized Trump at the Juno Awards in April.
Grammy Glory, Radio Silence
The album at the center of the current anniversary tour, Taking the Long Way, became both a vindication and a cautionary tale. The 2006 record won five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.
The band's 2003 backlash included nationwide radio bans.
Two Acts, One Anniversary
The Chicks launched their 20-date Taking the Long Way 20th Anniversary Tour on September 30 in Detroit, structuring each show into two acts: the full 2006 album performed front to back, followed by a set of greater hits, according to Just Jared. The tour coincided with an October 2 expanded 3LP reissue of the album featuring previously unreleased demos. The band also played the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan on October 12.
MassLive notes the band has not faced widespread radio bans for its current catalog, a contrast with the sweeping blacklist that followed Maines's 2003 remarks. The article was produced with assistance from AI tools and reviewed by MassLive.com staff.
