JD Vance reveals why he picked Merle Haggard's 'America First' as his walkout song

WASHINGTON, DC: JD Vance explained his reasoning behind choosing Merle Haggard's 2005 song 'America First' as his walkout song at campaign events during an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, which the publication shared on Friday, August 2. 

With the title of the song being akin to the signature rallying calls of Donald Trump's MAGA movement, the GOP vice presidential nominee said that the song captured that "theme" of the conservative movement "better than anything I’ve heard."

The Republican has long been associated with the song, using it as his walkout music at major events since his days campaigning for the Ohio Senate in 2022. However, it caught the attention of a much larger audience as the track played as Vance took the stage to deliver his speech at the Republican National Convention last month.

JD Vance's appreciation for Merle Haggard's 'America First' 

"I just love the opening lyrics — 'Why don’t we liberate these United States, they’re the ones who need it the most,'" told JD Vance to Breitbart News in an interview conducted at the end of July.

He continued, "And really, it’s saying why don’t we stop trying to bring freedom and democracy to every far-flung corner of the globe using American troops to do it? Why don’t we bring freedom and democracy to our own country first and focus on rebuilding our own country before we focus on the problems elsewhere in the world?"

"We have veterans sleeping under bridges and on park benches in our country, and yet we are bringing in 20 million illegal aliens and giving them luxury hotel rooms in New York City. It’s a complete insult to everybody who has actually served or loves this country and I just, you know, the whole movement is about getting American leadership to put our citizens first," claimed Vance. 

The GOP VP nominee expressed, "I think that song captures that theme better than anything I’ve ever heard."

JD Vance praises Donald Trump's ability to gauge and prevent globalist disasters

Merle Haggard's 'America First' contains criticism of the war in Iraq, which was launched by the GOP administration under former President George W Bush. Before the Trump era, it would have been "unthinkable" for conservatives to criticize the act, claimed Breitbart News.

Vance agreed with the publication, noting that Trump has massively changed the outlook of the Republican Party and that the election provided an opportunity to prevent similar globalist "disasters" from taking place.

"We have the party of President Donald Trump, not of anybody else," said the Ohio senator, adding, "I think that metamorphosis is complete. You certainly saw that at the RNC Convention where eight years ago you had a lot of people skeptical of the party’s nominee but in 2024 you had extreme unity behind the party’s nominee."

He expressed, "President Trump deserves a lot of credit for being right about some of the big disasters that the globalists have walked us into over the years. He was right about NAFTA, they were wrong. He was right about not letting China get sweetheart trade deals, they were wrong. He was right about not invading Iraq, they were wrong."

"I think it’s really important to note that over 40 years, most of which the guy wasn’t in public life or wasn’t a political leader at least, he has actually had the foresight to know when America’s leaders were walking us into a disaster," remarked Vance. 

He concluded, "Isn’t that what we want out of an American president, somebody who has the foresight and wisdom to see these disasters coming? That’s exactly what you want in a political leader. Unfortunately, for most of my lifetime, we haven’t had that. Now we do. We have an opportunity to get it back in the Oval Office and that’s what our entire campaign is about of course."