Donald Trump may be celebrating his 80th birthday this weekend with a White House U.F.C. fight, but the festivities are bound to come with a soundtrack. Bill Clinton had his sax, Jimmy Carter his Southern rockers, Barack Obama his music-biz admirers. Our current president has his iPad—and the range of songs he’s called up on that device, or played at his events, provides another, sometimes unsettling peek into the Trump brain.
A bona-fide boomer—born the year after World War II ended—Trump was spotted at the occasional rock show before his White House years. In 2006, he was in one of the front rows at the New York stop of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s final reunion tour. Since running for president the first time, he has happily blasted generational touchstones by the Rolling Stones (“You Can’t Always Get What You Want”) and Sam & Dave (“Hold On, I’m Coming”) at his events, often to the disapproval of those artists.
