President Donald Trump joked that his wife ‘hates’ when he dances to the Village People’s hit song, YMCA, and begs him to stop, dubbing the iconic track the ‘Gay National Anthem.’
Trump spoke to MAGA supporters on Friday at The Villages in Florida, a massive retirement community that previously made headlines for swinging and wild behavior.
During his remarks, he went on a tangent about what First Lady Melania Trump hates, revealing that she believes his dance moves are ‘unpresidential.’
‘She hates when I dance to what’s sometimes referred to as the gay national anthem,’ he told the crowd, adding: ‘We love that song.’
Trump was frequently seen dancing to the 1978 disco hit on the campaign trail. He boasted that his use of the song led to a surge in popularity for the decades-old hit.
Melania herself confessed her hesitation to Trump’s fascination with the song, admitting in an interview on Fox News in January that she only likes it ‘at certain times.’
‘Some days it’s not appropriate, and I told him so. But it’s his dance and I think people love it,’ she added.
YMCA claimed the Number 1 spot during the week of November 17, 2024, after the president played the song during his campaign trail.
Donald Trump joked during a recent speaking event, pictured above, that his wife did not like his dance moves to the YMCA song
The Village People were formed in 1978 and gained popularity among the gay community. Members of the group in the 70s are pictured
Trump revealed that Melania does not think his dance moves are ‘presidential.’ The couple is pictured together above earlier this week
Village People earned a slew of accolades in the disco era, but YMCA did not earn the top slot until 2024, a feat that Trump has credited to himself and boasted about.
Cruisin’, the album that the song was on, did, however, become an international smash hit and earned Number 1s in 17 countries.
The album sold over 12 million copies and was preserved by the National Recording Registry of the US Library of Congress in 2020.
YMCA being the ‘Gay National Anthem’ has been widely debated. Some have interpreted the lyrics to be about gay men finding community at the establishment. Others believe the line about ‘having a good time’ is a euphemism for gay sex.
However, one of the song’s co-writers, Victor Willis, dispelled the interpretation in 2024.
‘As I’ve said numerous times in the past, that is a false assumption based on the fact that my writing partner was gay, and some (not all) of Village People were gay, and that the first Village People album was totally about gay life,’ he explained in a statement on social media.
‘This assumption is also based on the fact that the YMCA was apparently being used as some sort of gay hangout and since one of the writers was gay and some of the Village People are gay, the song must be a message to gay people. To that I say once again, get your minds out of the gutter. It is not.’
Willis said even though Trump’s continued usage of the song was a ‘nuisance’ to him, the president’s team obtained a license, and he ‘didn’t have the heart’ to fight it.
The band performed at a ball on the eve of Trump’s inauguration in 2025, pictured above. The move generated widespread backlash from the Village People’s fanbase
Whether YMCA is a ‘Gay National Anthem’ has been debated. Some of the band’s original members were gay and had a diverse audience. The original group is pictured in 1979
The Village People has experienced a rotating cast of musicians since its inception during the disco era.
French producers Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo founded the group. Willis was the next artist recruited and is the only remaining original member.
The group’s name was inspired by Greenwich Village, a New York City neighborhood that emerged as a haven for the LGBTQ+ community and where the Stonewall Riots occurred.
Many of the original members were gay, including Morali, who died of complications from AIDS in 1991.
The Village People performed at a ball on the eve of Trump’s inauguration last year, which sparked backlash from some of the band’s original fanbase.
The writer of YMCA, Victor Willis, pictured above, has previously said that the song is not a ‘Gay National Anthem’
Melania Trump said she did not believe that her husband’s dance moves to the song were ‘presidential.’ He’s pictured above dancing at a rally in 2024
A former member of the band, Jim Newman, spoke out against the band’s performance, claiming that the original group ‘would never, ever perform at a Trump rally.’
‘That is a new and entirely separate entity than the long Storied Village People I had the honor of being in for 8 years. It’s sad to watch what has happened to the Village People brand but greed has a way of destroying good things,’ Newman said.
The Village People defended the decision as a way of bringing the country together, adding that they believed ‘music is to be performed without regard to politics.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to the band’s team for comments on Trump’s recent remarks.
