Rod Stewart made an intervention in the race for the White House on Friday with a plea for aid for Ukraine—and by implication an attack on Donald Trump.
The veteran British singer used an appearance at a stadium concert in Cleveland, Ohio, to call explicitly for continued support for Ukraine, calling the Russian invasion “evil” and displaying pictures of the toll it has taken on the country’s people.
Stewart, 79, has rarely spoken on political issues in public—but has recently become a Trump critic, ending a friendship of many years with his Palm Beach neighbor and saying his wife had called the former president a “disgrace.” In August, he mocked Trump for “turning orange,“ a reference to the former president claiming his rival, Kamala Harris, had “turned Black.”
Rod Stewart offers support to Ukraine during a concert in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 13, 2024.
Hugh Dougherty
Going so explicitly political, however, is a new departure. At a joint concert with Billy Joel, Stewart changed outfits between songs and emerged on stage in bright blue pants and shirt, and a bright yellow jacket. “These are the colors of a flag—the flag of Ukraine,” he told a crowd of about 40,000. “There’s an evil war going on in Ukraine. Russia has invaded Ukraine. This song is for Ukraine, for its soldiers. For [Volodymyr] Zelensky.”
“And whoever is next in the White House—don’t stop helping Ukraine,” Stewart added. He then sang his hit “Sailing” in front of images of the war in Ukraine and, at the final chorus, a picture of Zelensky.
The message of support amid the war, delivered in a city with one of the largest Ukrainian-American communities in the country, puts Stewart directly at odds with Trump. While Democratic candidate Harris used Tuesday night’s presidential debate to pledge unwavering support for Zelensky and his country’s war effort, Trump has offered no such promise. Instead, he claimed that he would end the war before he even re-entered office, suggesting he would be able to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop.
While he did not say how, he heavily criticized President Joe Biden’s refusal to speak to or negotiate with Putin—which critics have argued means he would force Ukraine to surrender territory and its aspirations for NATO membership. Harris seized on these comments Tuesday as evidence that he would roll over to strongmen and dictators.
Trump has also declined to commit to continuing the massive flow of military aid from U.S. stocks which Zelensky says has been crucial to the country’s continued ability to hold off Russian troops—and needs to be stepped up to prevent more Ukrainian losses. Among the American materiel now in use on the battlefield are medium-distance HIMAR missiles, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, the Patriot missile defense system, and, in recent weeks, F-16 fighters, which Ukrainians have long requested to combat Russian air superiority.
Rather than committing to aid at the debate, Trump suggested that Harris and Biden had failed to get Europeans to pay enough toward the war effort. Zelensky has lobbied Republicans to commit to continued military aid but has had little success persuading much of the party’s MAGA wing. Earlier this month, the Ukrainian president hosted South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham in Kyiv. Graham is a rare member of the hawkish Republican foreign policy establishment who is close to Trump, and the move was seen as an attempt to secure an advocate in the White House in the event Trump returns to the Oval Office.
