Singer Richard Marx Called Out Trump on Twitter

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 19 July 2018

Wherever you go, whatever you do, there will be a wince-inducing Trump news story waiting for you when you get back. Now, you probably felt a familiar flicker of anxiety when you read that, but you may also have recognized the chorus to the '89 Richard Marx classic "Right Here Waiting." But what does one have to do with the other, you may ask?

Well, until today, not much: One is a timeless piece of music, and the other is orange and very, very mean. Today, however, Richard Marx himself, a man I thought was a one-hit wonder but whose Twitter bio informs me has actually created 50 number-one hits, thank you very much, weighed in on Trump's "would/wouldn't" snafu via Twitter, writing:

I misspoke. I meant to say I “wouldn’t” be right here waiting for you.

If you, like me, have tried very hard to forget the background of this story, Trump said Monday, "I don't see any reason why it would be" in regard to Russia hacking the 2016 election. The next day, he came back to say he'd misspoke (kind of): "The sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia,’' he insisted.

The world and internet alike promptly lit up with responses, ranging from, "Are you actually kidding me?" and "Isn't this treason?" to Richard Marx's one-liner, which I personally believe to be the only amusing part of this entire national nightmare.

I misspoke. I meant to say I “wouldn’t” be right here waiting for you.July 18, 2018

If you're still a little iffy on what Marx is referencing—and, if so, my advice is to go and watch a batch of '90s romantic comedies immediately—let me refresh your memory.

Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be right here waiting for you...

Whatever it takes, or how my heart breaks...

Speaking of my heart breaking... Oh, we've come full circle.

Jenny is the Digital Director at Marie Claire. A graduate of Leeds University, and a native of London, she moved to New York in 2012 to attend the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She was the first intern at Bustle when it launched in 2013, and spent five years building out its news and politics department. In 2018 she joined Marie Claire, where she held the roles of Deputy Digital Editor and Director of Content Strategy before becoming Digital Director. Working closely with Marie Claire's exceptional editorial, audience, commercial, and e-commerce teams, Jenny oversees the brand's digital arm, with an emphasis on driving readership. When she isn't editing or knee-deep in Google Analytics, you can find Jenny writing about television, celebrities, her lifelong hate of umbrellas, or (most likely) her dog, Captain. In her spare time, she also writes fiction: her first novel, the thriller EVERYONE WHO CAN FORGIVE ME IS DEAD, was published with Minotaur Books (UK) and Little, Brown (US) in February 2024 and became a USA Today bestseller. She has also written extensively about developmental coordination disorder, or dyspraxia , which she was diagnosed with when she was nine. She is currently working on her second novel.