How the YMCA Became Donald Trump’s Unlikely Anthem

Following the announcement that the Village People would be performing at several upcoming inauguration events, what is it about their songs that appeals to the president-elect?

Village People’s YMCA is an energetic disco hit that encourages young working-class men to meet like-minded people at the hostels of the Young Men’s Christian Association. It is been interpreted as an ode to the pleasures of picking up sexual partners from them – it appears on an album titled Cruisin’ – and was first performed by a group of chiseled dancers with mustaches and figure-hugging costumes in fancy dress. It is therefore hardly surprising that the song has been so closely associated with gay culture ever since it was released in 1978. What is perhaps surprising is that it is now so closely associated with US President Donald Trump.

YMCA is heard again and again at Make America Great Again rallies and Mar-a-Lago fundraisers, Trump often dances while his supporters sing along. And now the association will become even closer. This week it was announced that the Villagers themselves would be appearing at several inauguration events: he is also a fan of another of their hits, Macho Man. In a political career not short of ironies and contradictions, this one has to be near the top of the list.

YMCA was co-written by its French producer, Jacques Morali, and its singer, Victor Willis. A flawless fusion of punchy brass fanfares, spiraling violins and insistent funky rhythms, the song is so bubbly and catchy it practically compels you to join in. The accompanying semaphore-like arm movements, added to an appearance on the TV show American Bandstand in 1979, make it even harder to resist—though Trump never tries them. YMCA is the wedding reception song everyone can sing, the aerobics workout routine everyone can try.

But how did it make the leap from parties to politics? In March 2020, the single came out was certified as “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” by the National Recording Registry of the US Library of Congress – a sure sign that it was no longer seen as subversive or risque, but as a celebration of all purposes of enjoying yourself with other people. A month later it was blown up at anti-lockdown rallies during the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of the protesters changed the letters YMCA to MAGA, and the song became a staple for Trump soon after. While some political rallies can seem serious and somber, Trump prides himself on the notion that his rallies have the populist razzmatazz of a sports game or a rock concert — so the Village People’s feel-good hit makes sense as their crowd-pleasing soundtrack. As the song’s lyrics put it, “There’s no need to feel down… pick yourself up off the ground.”

But the connection between MAGA and the YMCA is not just about having fun, says Dr. A. Jamie Saris, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Maynooth University. “I don’t think you can separate Trump and his base from nostalgia,” says Dr. Saris for the BBC. “They want a do-over. That is, they want to relive certain moments that they have in their brains, like when America was great; they just don’t want to deal with the contradictions. Disco was problematic for a lot of kids at the time, but now say the same people who used to be uncomfortable with it, ‘the 1970s were great, my back didn’t hurt!’

Furthermore, says Dr. Saris, the nostalgia of the MAGA movement tips over into the camp. “You see these office workers at Trump rallies dressed as war veterans and Navy Seals and laborers.” Strange as it may seem, their cosplay is not so different from the Village People, who, with more deliberate irony, fetishize supposedly wholesome and honest ways of living by dressing up as a policeman, a soldier, a cowboy, a Native American chief, a construction worker and a leather-clad biker: what Dr. Saris calls “still admired images of American masculinity”.

None of this makes the connection between the song and the politician any less head-scratching: Campaign anthems tend to be about patriotism, freedom and hope for the future, not about hanging out with the boys when you’re short on dough. But it’s worth noting that Trump’s music choices are limited. The list of artists who have objected to the use of their work at his rallies, or had their lawyers send cease and desist letters, is an extremely long onewhich includes Beyoncé, Rihanna, Celine Dion, REM and Aerosmith. When The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army” was played at a rally, Jack White responded on Instagram: “Don’t even think about using my music, you fascists. Lawsuit coming from my lawyers on this (to add to your 5 thousand others).” Band has since dropped the case.

Curiously, another name on that list is Victor Willis of the Village People. In June 2020, he announced that he didn’t want Trump to play his songs anymore and in 2023 he sent a cease and desist letter after a group dressed as the Village People was seen performing at Mar-a-Lago. Still, several people who have spoken out against Trump in recent years have since changed their minds, and Willis is one of them. “The economic benefits have been great,” he pointed out on Facebook in December. “The YMCA is estimated to have earned several million dollars since the president-elect’s continued use of the song. Therefore, I am happy that I allowed the president-elect’s continued use by the YMCA. And I thank him for choosing to use my song.” Incidentally, Willis also announced in that post that he never meant for there to be any innuendo in such lyrics as, “I’m sure you’ll find many ways to feel good.” His wife, he said, would sue any news organization which described the YMCA as a gay anthem.

Still confused by the sight of a 78-year-old president-elect boogying to a disco track emblazoned with the words “Young Man”? Well, maybe this confusion is part of the point: one thing that amuses Donald Trump’s supporters and frustrates his detractors is that he doesn’t fit neatly into one box. “Trump’s musical choices (and they always seem to be his personal choices) tell us a lot about him,” Professor James Garratt, the author of Music and Politics: A Critical Introduction, told the BBC, “since unlike other politicians, doesn’t seem to care if his choices seem chaotic, random, or ideologically inconsistent his songbook lurks similarly eclectic, I don’t think he’s trolling liberals by using songs like YMCA, rather, we’re seeing the authentic Trump in all his mixed glory.