The Smash Hit Songs On Trump's Playlist Are As Random As You'd Expect

When he's not busying himself with the labors of being the Commander-in-Chief and sitting upon the seat of power of the U.S. federal government, President Donald Trump is relaxing at his private residence at Mar-A-Lago, the resort he owns in Palm Beach, Florida. One of Trump's favorite activities, according to what his "closest friends" told Axios, is entertaining on the resort's patio area, and subjecting his guests to music played at such a high volume that it's sometimes difficult to carry on a conversation.

It's like Trump is listening anyway; he apparently lights up with joy as each song plays. That's because he's controlling the music. When he's in "DJ T" mode, as it's been nicknamed by Mar-A-Lago's most entrenched, Trump uses his personal iPad to stream a playlist constructed on the scandal-prone Spotify service consisting of 13 carefully chosen selections. Every night on the patio, it's apparently the same collection of 13 songs, over and over. While there are many stars that Donald Trump can't stand, his curated virtual mixtape is reserved for only his favorites. Let's pull up the Trump playlist and analyze all those classic hits. 

At first glance, Donald Trump's preferred playlist seems diverse, with many different genres covered and songs spanning decades. A closer look reveals a few notable similarities between the tracks, which could suggest a lot about the character and age of the person who crafted the list. For instance, all but one of the 13 songs in the collection of Trump favorites was recorded or released in the 20th century. It would seem that as Trump aged into advanced adulthood, he stopped keeping up with current music, as is often the case. But while he doesn't quite favor the music of his youth, he really seems to like the high-charting hard rock of the 1990s. That choice of decade isn't surprising, considering that Trump hit his pre-presidential cultural peak in the 1990s, frequently appearing in tabloids and turning out cameos in movies like "Home Alone 2."

Trump apparently enjoys music that's heavy, serious, loud, and laden with blazing guitar solos. Metallica's massively popular "Enter Sandman" had headbangers banging their heads back in 1991, and it warranted a spot on Trump's Mar-A-Lago playlist. The year 1991 also represented the tail end of the hair metal era, as Guns N' Roses scored big with the ambitious, multi-part "November Rain." That dreamy-then-hard-rocking long song also shows up on Trump's playlist.

The early 1990s were a very fruitful time for rock, both in the harder sounds evidently enjoyed by President Donald Trump and in the softer, more experimental, and emergent sub-genre of alternative rock. In the 1980s, when it was known as college rock, R.E.M. pioneered the jangly sound and evolved into a superstar band. In 1991, R.E.M. scored its biggest hit single ever when "Losing My Religion" hit No. 5 on the pop chart. It's a quirky and uneasy song, but catchy enough to have captured a wide audience — even the President of the United States is a fan, enough to include it on his persistently played Mar-A-Lago playlist.

"Losing My Religion" is joined on President Trump's playlist with another moody, inward-gazing song that takes a soft sell to audience engagement. That song is "Nothing Compares 2 U," a breakup ballad written and originally recorded by Prince turned into a devastating and haunting classic by controversial Irish singer Sinead O'Connor. A No. 1 hit in 1990, the mournful, tear-jerking tune kicks off President Trump's playlist he puts on for guests, despite not being the kind of thing that anyone would consider "party music."

The songs picked for President Donald Trump's "DJ T" playlist track for a man who famously loves grandeur and theatricality. For example, when he surprisingly won the 2016 presidential election, he emerged to greet supporters in a Manhattan hotel event space to the strains of the Rolling Stones' melancholy slow burn "You Can't Always Get What You Want," used often at campaign rallies. Obviously, a long-time Trump favorite, that 1969 song also shows up on the playlist.

Emotion-inducing songs in several formats fill the Trump playlist, and they're quite literally dramatic. The title song from Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" is on the list, as is "Superstar" from Webber's "Jesus Christ Superstar." Those songs aren't too different from other dramatic and anguished pop hits Trump likes, such as "My Way," Frank Sinatra's signature, show-ending thesis statement of power, and Elvis Presley's overwrought, late-career hit "Suspicious Minds."

While 1990s rock, highlights from Broadway musicals, and bombastic ballads make up the bulk of President Donald Trump's most reliable Spotify playlist of a baker's dozen songs, there are a few semi-outliers that could be loosely grouped together as the works of baby boomer icons. Born in 1946, President Trump is a member of that generation, and he appreciates a lot of the same music as millions of other people around his age. James Brown's major hit-making era ran through the 1950s and 1960s, when Trump was in his youth. Brown first recorded what would become one of his best-known songs, "It's a Man's Man's Man's World," in 1966, but that's not the version of the soul classic on Trump's playlist. According to what Axios says is on his playlist, he prefers a 2002 live version performed by Brown with opera singer Luciano Pavarotti.

Johnny Cash, Elton John, and Lionel Richie were also broadly popular throughout the latter half of the 20th century. They all appear on Trump's playlist of treasured tunes. Cash's "Ring of Fire," a country-rock song with mariachi horns about a man contending with the consequences of his actions, perhaps resonates with a powerful world leader. John's "Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding" is one part instrumental, one part regretful love letter to an ex, and Richie's "Hello" is a bit of romantic '80s cheese and a staple of soft rock radio.