President Donald Trump drew criticism this week after using a tribute to late Village People frontman Victor Willis to revisit the role of "Y.M.C.A." at his political rallies, prompting fresh debate over the president's habit of placing himself at the center of public statements about celebrity deaths.
Willis' family and management confirmed Wednesday that the singer had died after what the band described on Facebook as "a short but aggressive illness." He was one day short of his 75th birthday.
Willis was the original lead singer and a co-writer of several of Village People's best-known songs, including "Macho Man," "In The Navy" and "Y.M.C.A." The latter became closely associated with Trump's rallies, where the president regularly used the disco anthem as walk-off music and performed his familiar arm-and-shoulder dance.
In a Truth Social post, Trump praised Willis but quickly turned to the song's role in his own political events.
"He was a great and happy guy who loved that I used his groups song, 'YMCA,' at my Rallies," Trump wrote.
Trump then claimed his rallies helped revive the song decades after its original release.
"It became a 'monster' hit, again, 30 years after its original launch," Trump wrote, adding that other performers later wanted to be associated with his campaign events after "all of the Rally Attendance Records were set."
"The crowds were, and are, enormous - But Victor and the group was there for us right from the beginning!" Trump said.
The president eventually offered condolences to Willis' relatives and bandmates, saying he would continue playing the song in the singer's honor.
"They loved the action, and we loved them and their great and uplifting song. We will think of Victor every time YMCA is played, like today, and all throughout this July Fourth Birthday week. My condolences to his wonderful family and group, Victor Willis will be sorely missed, God Bless Him!!!" Trump wrote.
The post drew backlash because Trump's description of Village People's relationship with his campaign omitted a more complicated history.
In 2020, Willis publicly asked Trump to stop using "Y.M.C.A." at political rallies. "I don't endorse Trump," he told the BBC at the time, joining a long list of artists who objected to the use of their music at campaign events.
The relationship later shifted. Village People performed at Trump's inauguration victory rally in Washington in January 2025, where the president danced on stage as the song played.
Even then, the group sought to separate its music from Trump's politics. In May, a spokesperson for Village People told the Daily Beast that "Village People are not MAGA as the group does not support President Trump's policies in any respect."
That statement undercuts Trump's claim that Willis and the band were fully aligned with his political movement "right from the beginning." The public record instead shows a shifting relationship that included objections, later performances and continued efforts by the group to avoid being defined as part of the MAGA movement.
The controversy also revived criticism of Trump's broader pattern of public comments following deaths of prominent figures.
Critics pointed to previous posts in which Trump used deaths to attack political opponents or revisit old grievances. In March, after the death of former special counsel Robert Mueller, Trump wrote: "Good, I'm glad he's dead." Mueller, a former FBI director and decorated Marine veteran, led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump also drew condemnation after the deaths of filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, when he used the moment to reference "Trump derangement syndrome" rather than focus primarily on their lives or careers.
The Willis post was less openly hostile than those earlier statements, but it still prompted criticism because much of it focused on Trump's rallies, crowd sizes and the song's renewed popularity rather than Willis' musical legacy.
