Donald Trump used the death of Village People frontman Victor Willis on Tuesday to boast about his own political rallies, posting a rambling tribute that repeatedly put himself at the centre of the story of 'Y.M.C.A.,' the disco anthem he adopted as a campaign soundtrack across the United States.
The Willis' family and management confirmed on Wednesday morning that the singer had died following what the band described on Facebook as 'a short but aggressive illness', just one day shy of his 75th birthday. Willis was the original lead singer and co-writer behind Village People's biggest hits, including 'Macho Man,' 'In The Navy' and 'Y.M.C.A.,' the song that later became welded in the public mind to Trump's rallies and his now-familiar shoulder-shimmy dance.
In his Truth Social message, Trump, 80, opened with praise but quickly veered into self-congratulation. 'He was a great and happy guy who loved that I used his groups song, "YMCA," at my Rallies,' he wrote, in a post that misspelled 'group's' and went on to imply he had personally revived the track's success.
'It became a 'monster' hit, again, 30 years after its original launch,' Trump claimed, asserting that his rallies were the reason for the resurgence. 'Many singers and groups wanted to get on board at the Rallies after all of the Rally Attendance Records were set - The crowds were, and are, enormous - But Victor and the group was there for us right from the beginning!'
Even in written form, the familiar Trumpian cadences are all there: the capitalised 'Rally Attendance Records', the triple exclamation mark, the mis-matched grammar. 'The group was' should have been 'the group were,' but the style is so recognisable that the errors almost feel like part of the brand.
Trump did eventually arrive at a more conventional condolence. He promised to continue playing 'Y.M.C.A.' in Willis' honour, writing: 'They loved the action, and we loved them and their great and uplifting song. We will think of Victor every time YMCA is played, like today, and all throughout this July Fourth Birthday week. My condolences to his wonderful family and group, Victor Willis will be sorely missed, God Bless Him!!!'
It is the insistence that Willis and the rest of Village People 'loved' the use of their song at political events that jars most, because the record shows a far more complicated relationship.
Donald Trump's Complicated Musical Alliances
Village People initially wanted nothing to do with Trump's campaign soundtrack. In 2020, at the height of his first term, Willis publicly demanded that Trump stop playing 'Y.M.C.A.' at rallies. 'I don't endorse Trump,' he told the BBC at the time, joining a long list of musicians who have resisted being associated with modern American politics.
Yet by January 2025, the dynamic had shifted. Willis and the band appeared at Trump's inauguration victory rally in Washington, where the then-president danced awkwardly on stage alongside them. The performance cemented the peculiar alliance between a late-1970s gay-club staple and the red-hatted crowds of the MAGA movement.
Over time, Trump's ungainly dance to 'Y.M.C.A.' became as recognisable as the song itself, a sort of unofficial anthem for his rallies. It was an odd cultural fusion, and not one Village People were keen to overstate. As recently as May, a spokesperson for the band told the Daily Beast that 'Village People are not MAGA as the group does not support President Trump's policies in any respect.'
That flat statement undercuts Trump's gleeful assertion that the group were fully 'there for us right from the beginning.' The truth, such as we have it on the record, is that their involvement has waxed and waned, shifting between legal objections, one-off performances and brisk attempts to draw a line between the music and the man.
A Pattern in Donald Trump's Death Tributes
If this week's message struck observers as jarringly self-absorbed, it is because Trump has form. His responses to high-profile deaths often double as score-settling exercises, framed less as public mourning and more as a fresh opportunity to define friends and enemies.
When Trump-critical film director Rob Reiner and his wife were killed in December, the President used his Truth Social account not to focus on their life and work, but to link Reiner's death to what he called 'Trump derangement syndrome.' The wording, as reported, drew widespread disgust even among some who normally defend his rhetoric, although his team did not retract or clarify the post.
In March this year, he went further. Responding to the death of Robert Mueller, the former special counsel who led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump wrote on social media: 'Good, I'm glad he's dead.' Mueller, a Bronze Star combat veteran widely described as a devoted family man and public servant, had become a political antagonist by virtue of his role in the probe, and Trump chose to mark his passing with unvarnished glee.
Set against that backdrop, Wednesday's message about Willis looks almost restrained, which is perhaps the most telling part. Trump did offer condolences and invoked God's blessing. Yet even in an obituary-style post for a musician whose biggest hits predated his political career, he could not resist circling back to his favourite subject: the size of his crowds, the supposed magnetism of his rallies, and the flattering story in which 'Y.M.C.A.'s' late-life success is really about him.
Nothing in the publicly available statements suggests Willis shared that version of events wholeheartedly, and the band's more recent comments contradict any idea of uncomplicated support. With no further context from Trump's camp, and no new statement yet from Willis' family addressing the tribute directly, much of the narrative remains contested and should be treated with caution rather than taken as established fact.
