Natalie Maines unloaded on President Donald Trump this week in a profane Instagram rant that revived the same kind of political backlash that once turned her into one of country music’s biggest lightning rods.
The Chicks singer, 51, posted an official portrait of Trump last week and used the caption to warn that the country was slipping away while hurling an insult at the president.
“Our democracy is disappearing right before our eyes,” Maines wrote.
“This fugly slut is using your gas money to pay the insurrectionists,” she continued. “But don’t worry about it. I’m sure posting selfies will fix everything.”
The Chicks’ lead singer Natalie Maines unleashed on President Trump in a fiery Instagram post, calling him a “fugly sl*t” and accusing him of using Americans’ “gas money to pay the insurrectionists.” pic.twitter.com/oIlvRuLEzj
— TaraBull (@TaraBull) May 26, 2026
Maines also said she had already lost one post over the same insult.
“My last post that called [Trump] a fugly slut got removed. We’ll see how long this one lasts.”
She urged followers to share the post to “help the message live” and added hashtags including “democracy,” “freespeech” and “fugly slut.”
23 years ago today Natalie Maines of The Dixie Chicks sparked outrage among conservative fans after speaking out against President Bush and the invasion of Iraq.
At a London concert, Maines told the audience:
“Just so you know, we're on the good side with y'all. We do not want… pic.twitter.com/n5VhzGFd3r
— MR. POP (@MrPopOfficial) March 10, 2026
The post appeared to be driven by a legal fight involving Trump, his sons Don Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization, the Treasury and the IRS.
The case landed in the Southern District of Florida after the leak of Trump’s tax returns.
Remember The Dixie Chicks? Now it’s just The Chicks.
She looks like she’s got a political protest right after the concert. pic.twitter.com/ZInJ0xx8Bc
— Dr. Jebra Faushay (@JebraFaushay) January 15, 2026
Once the lawsuit was dropped, the IRS agreed to set up a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” authorized to issue formal apologies and financial relief to claimants.
Oversight of the fund falls to a five-member commission chosen by the attorney general, who was appointed by Trump, and Trump can remove members from that commission.
He is not allowed to collect money from the fund himself, but associated entities are not expressly barred from bringing additional claims.
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Maines was hardly alone in exploding over that arrangement.
Jon Stewart went after the same fund on last Wednesday’s episode of his podcast after being asked whether he would rather vote for former President Richard Nixon or Trump.
Stewart said he would choose Nixon “if only to get the EPA,” while mocking the idea that Nixon’s scandals still stack up against what is happening now.
“But think about that in comparison to $1.8 billion of taxpayer money, at least I think Nixon’s slush fund was donors!” Stewart said about Watergate.
Jon Stewart on Trump’s ‘slush fund’: ‘This is our money. Do we even have a Congress anymore? It’s all Orwellian… one giant troll!’ pic.twitter.com/xIU1DnBMEK
— The Gulag (@WelcomeTheGulag) May 22, 2026
“This is f—ing OUR money. I mean, it’s– do we even have a Congress or a court?”
After a co-host noted that the $1.776 billion figure seemed to nod at 1776, Stewart said the whole thing was dressed up as something patriotic while operating as something else entirely.
“It’s all Orwell. It’s all a ‘f— you’ troll. Everything they’re doing is a ‘f— you’ troll to us. ‘This is against the weaponization of it and it’s patriotic.’ They’re trolling us. His entire career is a troll,” Stewart remarked.
He later compared the administration to thieves clearing out a store while everyone stands around watching.
“You know what it reminds me of? You ever see those videos where like, a horde of teens flies into, like, a CVS and just starts taking s—?” Stewart compared.
“And everybody’s just standing around, like, ‘Is anybody going to call somebody or are we just going to-‘ like, that’s what we are.”
Then Stewart pushed it further. “The Trump administration is a smash and grab on the American public, on the taxpayer,” he continued.
“It is the most corrupt, just utterly unsheathed, unleashed on us, and they are just grabbing whatever they can and pretending that it’s remuneration for some victimhood that they faced that’s all fictitious. It’s nonsense. Wild. Smash and grab.”
Stephen Colbert took his own shot at the fund during one of his final shows.
“We may be canceled, but apparently The Late Show has outlived the Constitution of the United States,” Colbert said, before claiming Trump had given himself “a $1.8 billion taxpayer-fueled slush fund.”
Colbert said the judge in the case was “highly skeptical” and then zeroed in on who might benefit from the money.
“That means people who stormed the capital, rubbed their poop on the walls, assaulted police officers, and tried to hang Vice President Mike Pence could be getting this cash. But they won’t because Trump’s going to steal it all,” he explained.
He also mocked the structure of the commission that would oversee the fund.
“So, I’d like to congratulate the inaugural commission for Donald Trump slush fund, Marco Rubio, Marco Rubio, Marco Rubio, Marco Rubio, and Marco Rubio,” Colbert joked.
The White House answered Maines directly after her post took off. “Natalie Maines is a despicable nobody who clearly suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted her peanut-sized brain,” a White House spokesperson told Fox News.
For Maines, political blowback is familiar territory. Her attack on Trump landed 23 years after the moment that transformed the Dixie Chicks from country superstars into one of the most polarizing acts in the genre.
During a London concert in 2003, as the United States prepared for the Iraq war, Maines told the crowd, “Just so you know, we’re ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas.”
The fallout was swift. Country radio stations pulled the group from playlists, death threats followed, and the trio’s commercial standing cratered.
Maines apologized after the uproar, then later reversed herself.
“I don’t feel that way anymore,” she said in a 2006 interview with Time. “I don’t feel he is owed any respect whatsoever.”
The group, which also includes sisters Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire, later dropped “Dixie” from its name in June 2020 after years of criticism over the word’s ties to the history of slavery in the United States.
Not long after that change, the band went on hiatus. Founding member Laura Lynch died in 2023.
Maines, Maguire and Strayer still tour, but they have not returned to the level of success they had before that political rupture.
Stewart also used a recent appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” to complain that the country’s constant fixation on Trump had become “annoying,” even as he made clear he wanted the administration gone.
“The day that the electorate in this great nation we call home repudiates this putrid administration,” Stewart said.
“There will be a joyful noise from the bowels of this great country that will make Hungary’s repudiation of Orban look like an Amish Sabbath.”
On Friday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the “anti-weaponization” after a Jan. 6 prosecutor and others sued to block the fund last week.
The order prevents the Department of Justice from taking any action during the legal proceedings, “which includes the transferring of money to the fund; the consideration of any claims submitted to the fund; and the disbursing of any funds from the fund.”