Donald Trump sparks confusion after playing ‘gay anthem’ in Saudi Arabia despite country's strict LGBTQ+ ban

Warning: This article contains discussion of discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community which some readers may find distressing.

Donald Trump has once again sparked confusion online after playing a song which has long been hailed a 'gay anthem' in Saudi Arabia despite the country's extremely strict LGBTQ+ ban.

For context, the 78-year-old Republican leader has been on a three-country tour in the Middle East, hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In Riyadh, the capital of the nation, Trump delivered a speech which which closed with 'Y.M.C.A' by the Village People playing as bin Salman came up to the stage to shake his hand.

People clearly couldn't wait to share their reactions to the track's inclusion given the song's ties to the LGBTQ+ community and Saudi Arabia's stance on homosexuality, as same-sex relations illegal and punishable by the death penalty.

Reacting to the clip social media user penned: "This feels legitimately like a scene from Borat and Trump is Borat."

"Why do I feel like I’m in a South Park episode?" quipped a second, while a third chimed in: "One thing I do like about a Trump presidency are the moments like this. Nobody expects him to know better."

Another penned: "Why is this one of the funniest things he’s done."

And a final social media user echoed: "This is actually really funny."

Now, the Village People are currently comprised of Victor Willis, Javier Perez, James Kwong, Nicholas Manelic, James Lee, and James J.J. Lippold - and they also played at Trump's inauguration back in January.

Willis, however, is the only original member still remaining. The singer has previously put out a statement regarding the popular disco track being referred to as a 'gay anthem'.

According to Willis, who wrote the lyrics to the 1978 smash-hit, 'Y.M.C.A' is far from a 'gay anthem', and it's actually totally heterosexual, despite its enduring popularity in the gay community.

US President Donald Trump speaking at the King Abdul Aziz International Conference Center in Riyadh earlier this week (13 May) (FAYEZ NURELDINE / Contributor / Getty Images)

Willis went as far to suggest that anyone claiming otherwise should 'get their minds out of the gutter'.

"There’s been a lot of talk, especially of late, that Y.M.C.A. is somehow a gay anthem", Willis wrote in a Facebook post. "As I’ve said numerous times in the past, that is a false assumption based on the fact that my writing partner was gay, and some (not all) of Village People were gay, and that the first Village People album was totally about gay life.

"This assumption is also based on the fact that the YMCA was apparently being used as some sort of gay hangout and since one of the writers was gay and some of the Village People are gay, the song must be a message to gay people. To that I say once again, get your minds out of the gutter. It is not.

"Come January 2025," Willis added later, "my wife will start suing each and every news organisation that falsely refers to YMCA, either in their headlines or alluded to in the base of the story, that YMCA is somehow a gay anthem because such notion is based solely on the song’s lyrics alluding to elicit [sic] activity for which it does not.

"Sadly, when the President Elect started using the song, people attempting to brand the song as a gay anthem reached a fever pitch as many used it to say, oh, Trump don’t know the song is a gay anthem? This was done in a manner to attempt to shame the President Elect’s use of the song.

"As I stated on numerous occasions, I knew nothing about the Y being a hang out for gays when I wrote the lyrics to Y.M.C.A. and Jacques Morali (who was gay) never once stated such to me. In fact, Jacques never once told me how to write my lyrics otherwise I would have said to him, you don’t need me, why don’t you simply write the lyrics.

"I therefore wrote Y.M.C.A. about the things I knew about the Y in the urban areas of San Francisco such as swimming, basketball, track, and cheap food and cheap rooms. And when I say, 'hang out with all the boys' that is simply 1970s black slang for black guys hanging-out together for sports, gambling or whatever. There’s nothing gay about that."

If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the LGBT Foundation on 0345 3 30 30 30, 10am–6pm Monday to Friday, or email [email protected]