Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley couldn’t resist poking fun at President Donald Trump at Wednesday night’s Country Music Awards in Nashville, Tennessee.
The co-hosts ignored the Country Music Association’s plea to make the awards ceremony apolitical, and sang a parody song about Trump’s Twitter habits.
“Now Brad, I don’t know if you’ve heard about this, but the CMA has given us some guidelines with specific topics to avoid,” Underwood joked as they opened the televised event. “So we can’t be doing any silly little songs because this year’s show is a ‘politics-free zone.’”
“Are you kidding me? That’s not fair,” replied Paisley, who suggested singing tracks with lyrics including “She wrote a memoir, Hillary’s Back,” “Stand by your Manafort,” and “Hold me closer, Bernie Sanders.”
Paisley eventually persuaded Underwood to join him in performing a spoof version of her Grammy Award-winning hit “Before He Cheats.”
The words to the reworked “Before He Tweets” were:
Right now, he’s probably in his PJs, watching cable news, reaching for his cell phone. Right now, he’s probably asking Siri, how in the hell do you spell Pocahontas.
In the middle of the night from the privacy of a gold-plated White House toilet seat, he writes liddle Bob Corker, NFL and covfefe. And it’s fun to watch, yeah, that’s for sure, ’til little ‘Rocket Man’ starts a nuclear war. And then maybe next time he’ll think before he tweets.
The song received mixed reviews on Twitter:
In a more reflective moment, the veteran hosts honored victims of tragic events such as the Las Vegas and Texas mass shootings, and the hurricanes in Puerto Rico, Texas and Florida.
“Tonight, we’re going to do what families do, come together, pray together, cry together and sing together, too,” said Underwood. Paisley later dedicated the show to “to all those we’ve lost, and to all of those who are still healing.”