Linda Ronstadt Slams Donald Trump “Hate Show” As Candidate Plans Rally At Tucson Venue Bearing Singer’s Name

Rock icon Linda Ronstadt has maintained a low public profile since her diagnosis with a Parkinson’s-like degenerative disease more than 10 years ago, but she’s raising her voice once again to condemn Donald Trump and the “hate show” rally he intends to bring to the Tucson music venue named in the “You’re No Good” singer’s honor.

The Trump rally is set for this afternoon in what the Republican candidate’s website calls The Tucson Music Hall. Only it hasn’t been called that since 2022, when the venue was officially renamed the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall.

“Donald Trump is holding a rally on Thursday in a rented hall in my hometown, Tucson,” Ronstadt writes in a new Instagram post (see it below). “I would prefer to ignore that sad fact. But since the building has my name on it, I need to say something. It saddens me to see the former President bring his hate show to Tucson, a town with deep Mexican-American roots and a joyful, tolerant spirit.”

The scathing message from the “Blue Bayou” singer, who, like Taylor Swift before her identifies as a proud cat lady, also refers to Trump as a “rapist” (Last year a jury in New York found Trump liable for the sexual abuse of writer E Jean Carroll in 1996.)

Writes Ronstadt:

“I don’t just deplore his toxic politics, his hatred of women, immigrants and people of color, his criminality, dishonesty and ignorance — although there’s that.

“For me it comes down to this: In Nogales and across the southern border, the Trump Administration systematically ripped apart migrant families seeking asylum. Family separation made orphans of thousands of little children and babies, and brutalized their desperate mothers and fathers. It remains a humanitarian catastrophe that Physicians for Human Rights said met the criteria for torture.

“There is no forgiving or forgetting the heartbreak he caused.

“Trump first ran for President warning about rapists coming in from Mexico. I’m worried about keeping the rapist out of the White House.”

As a P.S. to JD Vance, Ronstadt adds:

“I raised two adopted children in Tucson as a single mom. They are both grown and living in their own houses. I live with a cat. Am I half a childless cat lady because I’m unmarried and didn’t give birth to my kids? Call me what you want, but this cat lady will be voting proudly in November for @kamalaharris and @timwalz.”

Ronstadt’s endorsement of the Harris-Walz ticket makes her the third female rock star to speak out on the campaign in recent days, following Swift and Stevie Nicks. In a social media post yesterday, the former Fleetwood Mac singer wrot, “As my friend @taylorswift13 so eloquently stated, now is the time to research and choose the candidate that speaks to you and your beliefs. Only 54 days left until the election. Make sure you are registered to vote! Your vote in this election may be one of the most important things you ever do.”

Although the Phoenix-born Nicks didn’t specifically offer an endorsement, she signed her post “Stevie Nicks, Childless Dog Lady,” making her allegiances clear. (Vance infamously said in 2021 that the U.S. was being run by Democrats, oligarchs and “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”