How The View Reacted to Carrie Underwood’s Donald Trump Inauguration Performance

On Tuesday’s new hour, one of the Hot Topics at hand was both the support and backlash Underwood’s been receiving ever since confirming on Monday that she’ll sing “America the Beautiful” at Trump’s inauguration next week.

When asked by moderator Whoopi Goldberg how they all felt about the reaction to Underwood’s upcoming gig, Alyssa Farah Griffin said she hoped “we’re moving past the era of politics where we want to cancel people’s livelihoods because we don’t like their politics.”

Noting she didn’t agree with it when it happened to The Chicks after they criticized George W. Bush, Griffin said she doesn’t agree with it now, either. “If you have a problem, you register your complaint by not downloading her songs and not going to her shows,” she added of Underwood’s decision.

“But I also think from a business standpoint, it’s not a bad decision for Carrie Underwood,” Griffin added, noting that “75 million people voted for Trump” and — since “artists tend to skew left leaning” — the American Idol alum is likely “going to become an icon of MAGA and the American right” almost “overnight.”

“She’s probably going to make a lot of money off of it, so I get why she did it,” she concluded.

Joy Behar then deadpanned, “I see” — before saying, “I’ll tell you right now, I wouldn’t do it, even though I can’t sing.”

“I would not normalize him. She says, ‘I love our country.’ How do you love our country and support and normalize somebody who was a convicted felon and really wants to destroy the country, in my opinion?”

Behar then argued. “I don’t understand how you say you love your country, the same time you normalize this convicted felon, which I can say now every day.”

While Behar said she’d never tell someone not to perform, because she believes in free speech, it’s not a decision she would make herself. “Nobody’s asked me, but that’s another story,” she then joked.

“I think art is art and you have a right to perform where you want to perform,” Sunny Hostin then contributed, saying that she agreed with Behar’s POV. “I can’t sing a lick and I have not been asked, but if I were asked, it would be a hard no.”

“They’re not asking any of us!” Joy exclaimed after Whoopi also said they “wouldn’t ask” her, either.

“People do what they do for whatever reasons. I stand behind her,” Goldberg continued. “If I believe I have the right to make up my mind to go perform someplace, I believe they have the same right. I have to support.”

“It doesn’t mean I’m particularly interested. I won’t be watching. But that’s me,” she then added, before Sunny noted she’s scheduled herself a “spa day” come Inauguration Day. Behar, meanwhile, concluded, “As long as it’s a free country and it holds, I would agree with everybody. It is a free country at the moment.”

“I love our country and am honored to have been asked to sing at the Inauguration and to be a small part of this historic event,” the singer said in a statement on Monday, confirming her performance. “I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future.”

That unity was nowhere to be seen across social media after it was announced that Underwood would be taking part in the ceremonial kickoff of Trump’s second term, with her name immediately catapulting toward the top of U.S. trends on X.

“Will you be performing ‘Before he Cheats’?” asked one fan — with many more echoing the sentiment. These fans jumped onto Underwood’s latest Instagram post — which has nothing to do with the inauguration — to express their discontent.

“Sad to see you’re a Trumper,” commented one fan on that post, while still another wrote, “Don’t ever call yourself an LGBTQ ally again, you’re supporting the man that wants to abolish LGBTQ rights, you should be ashamed.”

“You can recover from that smell but orange stains are impossible to remove,” quipped another fan on her post, while dozens said they would be unfollowing the superstar, suggesting that this move by her could impact her career.

“Girl now I have to sell my Vegas residency tickets, this is EMBARRASSING,” wrote another.

The strong reactions seemed to crop up everywhere there was a place for fans to comment online. “Love when celebrities out themselves as being supportive or complicit with fascism so we know to stop supporting them,” wrote one fan on Variety’s IG share of the story, while another commented, “Kelly Clarkson is our true American Idol.”

Among those supporting her is Candace Cameron-Bure, who liked Variety’s IG share.

Yvette Nicole Brown, however, replied to the story, writing, “We’re about to learn the politics and price of a lot of people these next four years. Never forget which side of history they’ve chosen to be on.”

Tommy Dorfman, meanwhile, kept it simple, just writing, “girl” — as did RuPaul’s Drag Race star Michelle Visage, who added, “Oh dear.”

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