Richmond metal band GWAR says the Secret Service contacted the group following a recent performance at the Vans Warped Tour in Washington, D.C., that featured the mock execution of a Donald Trump effigy.
Video of the performance, which showed band members disemboweling a Trump character onstage and spraying the crowd with fake blood, circulated widely online last week and drew criticism from conservative commentators and Trump supporters.
For GWAR, however, the spectacle was hardly new. The band has spent decades incorporating politicians, celebrities, dictators, and other public figures into its notoriously over-the-top stage shows, often ending their appearances in gruesome fashion.
“I think we mount a critique of modern life and we do it with comedy and horror and music and attitude,” guitarist Mike Derks, better known as Balsac the Jaws of Death, said in a 2022 interview. “It’s very transgressive but it winds up being an inclusive experience for the audience. It’s obscene, but it’s also kind of welcoming. Yes, we’re taking the piss out of people, but we’re doing it in a fun way and pointing out the absurdity of life.”
Derks said the band’s targets have never been tied to a particular political party. “GWAR’s biggest enemy has always been authority. And what bigger symbol of authority is there in the United States than the president?” he said. “So, no matter who’s in office, GWAR is going to kill them on stage.”
Addressing criticism of the band’s performances, Derks added: “It’s like when people criticized Road Runner cartoons because they were worried kids would drop anvils on people. You can see the humor in GWAR and you can look deeper and see we’re trying to comment on certain things.”
Frontman Mike Bishop, known as Blöthar the Berserker, suggested the reaction to the band’s latest presidential execution was different from those that came before it.
“For years, GWAR would do whatever the fuck we wanted. We would kill politicians from both sides of the aisle. We would kill famous people. We never had any backlash,” Bishop said during a recent appearance on the Rocking With Jam Man podcast. “People acted as if GWAR had changed, but GWAR didn’t change. The world freakin changed.”
Bishop pointed to previous performances involving political figures, including former President Barack Obama, which he said did not generate the same level of reaction. “We killed President Obama, we didn’t hear from the Secret Service, but you killed Trump, and you better believe that there’s going to be some shit going on,” he said.
He also argued that pressure on artists and performers does not always come in the form of direct government action. “They don’t have to call the police on you,” Bishop said. “What they have to do is make it hard for you to make money.” He cited large concert promoters and entertainment companies like Live Nation as examples of organizations he believes can face political pressure when controversies arise.
The U.S. Secret Service has not confirmed whether it opened a formal investigation into the performance. In a statement provided to multiple media outlets, a Secret Service spokesperson said the agency investigates information that can be perceived as a threat to individuals under its protection but does not discuss specific protective intelligence matters. “The U.S. Secret Service investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees,” the spokesperson said. “Out of concern for operational security, we do not discuss matters of protective intelligence.”
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech advocacy organization, defended the band’s performance as protected expression.
“The obviously over-the-top theatrical context of Gwar’s mock execution, and the fact that the band has done the same thing to other politicians and public figures, make clear that they weren’t actually threatening the president’s life,” Angel Eduardo, a senior writer and editor at FIRE, wrote. “There’s also no credible argument that the performance amounted to unprotected incitement, which applies only to speech intended and likely to result in imminent unlawful action.”
Despite the controversy surrounding the performance, Bishop rejected the idea that GWAR’s stage show should be interpreted as a genuine threat. Asked whether there was anyone left on the band’s list of targets, he responded in typical GWAR fashion.
“Everybody wants to know who it is that we want to kill. But really, we don’t want to kill anybody, man. We just want to have fun,” Bishop said. “Maybe if we had to kill anybody, I would say it would be ourselves. That’s who we haven’t fucking killed yet.”
Photo by Vinny Candela from GWAR in Richmond, VA in 2025
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