Christopher Cross Uses Canada Stage to Blast Trump, Jokes About Getting ‘Ejected’ From America

Christopher Cross apologized to Canadians at Toronto’s RBC Amphitheatre Sunday night, the venue on the banks of recently ballyhooed Lake Ontario, calling President Trump “an asshole” and urging the crowd to not “give up on us.”

The “Sailing” singer didn’t have to get into any detail. Trump recently signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” imposed a 50 percent tariff on $20 billion of Canadian goods after the collapse of trade negotiations, called Canadian officials “nasty people,” and Canada “one of the worst countries in the world to deal with.”

Cross didn’t mention the lake-naming — or that the venue hosting the night‘s headliners, Toto , butts the actual Lake Ontario — but the Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, best known for yacht rock classics like “Sailing,” “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” and “Ride Like the Wind,” made his feelings abundantly clear.

At the concert, Cross opened with his 2011 song “Dreamers,” which included a snippet of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. “It’s a recording from something quite famous in our country, but you may not know what it was, but it was a gentleman named Dr. Martin Luther King, speaking about civil rights,” Cross said from the stage. The audience responded in kind. “It represents a very dark time in my country, which is happening again.”

Each line he spoke was met with increasingly louder cheers. Cross continued: “I want to tell you that we love your country and appreciate your country very much. … I’m just very sorry and embarrassed that we have an asshole for a president. But don’t give up on us. We have an election coming up, and we’re going to do our best to fix it. … And then we’ll be buying all your shit again, and you’ll be buying all our shit again. [cheers] We can be victims of corporate greed together.“ (Several Canadian provinces and territories have banned the sale of U.S. liquor in response to American tariffs.) Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century

“Alright, enough of my preaching here,” Cross said. “I’m sure you’ll be reading in the paper where I’ve been ejected from the country, but that’s okay. I wanted to say what I had to say.”