Bruce Springsteen does not find Donald Trump amusing.
Speaking at the annual New Yorker Festival, the rocker slammed Trump when asked about his rise to Republican presidential nominee by New Yorker editor David Remnick.
"When he was just a big, sort of bloviating New York billionaire he could be highly entertaining," Springsteen said.
"He's not funny as a presidential candidate."
He predicted Trump would not win the election, but warned the nominee had "done a lot of damage already".
"I believe he's let loose some forces from the alt-right movement - he's brought them into the mainstream - that are not going to go away when he goes away."
Springsteen's Friday evening appearance kicked off a three-day event featuring authors, actors, filmmakers and more on panels at various venues.
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The rocker was the marquee event, with tickets to see him selling out in six seconds, Remnick told the crowd.
Not every panel was about politics, but there was plenty to satisfy the political junkie, including a panel offering what the moderator called "political seismologists," to examine earthquakes of the political variety.
New Yorker writers Jane Mayer and George Packer also looked at the big picture, examining the historical factors leading to Trump's success.
When asked what Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had done that was "so terrible", Mayer suggested that, as a woman, Clinton was held to a different standard than Trump.
"I don't think she'd still be in the race," Mayer said, in relation to the comments Trump made on the "Access Hollywood" video ricocheting around the airwaves.
