“This Is How My Country Feels About Us?” — Michael Trotter Jr. Talks About Coming Back From War & Being Homeless

From a homeless veteran to being a Grammy-nominated country artist. Husband and wife duo Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter make up the incredible duo The War And Treaty, who you might recognize from their song with Zach Bryan "Hey Driver," which was included Zach’s 2023 self-titled album and quickly became a fan-favorite. Michael and Tanya have been married since 2011, and have a son together as well. They were guests on a recent episode of Bunnie XO's Dumb Blonde podcast, where Michael opened up about being a homeless veteran and how they were actually both homeless when they met. Michael was still married to his previous wife, and not long after found himself divorced and going from couch to couch: "That's the wildest thing, we met homeless. She was staying with a friend, Tanya was coming out of her recovery period... I was a homeless vet. So I just couldn't... when I came out of the military, I was still married, but when we got divorced, that's when I went away couch to couch. And I will say, I just didn't know what it meant to be a veteran. I didn't know what was out there for me. I knew nothing." Tanya explained that she didn't even know Michael had been in the military for three years after they got together, and when Bunnie asked why, Michael was very honest, saying he was simply "embarrassed." When he returned home to the Baltimore airport after his deployment, still in uniform and proud to have served his country, he was shocked to see that military members were being protested against. Sadly, he wasn't greeted with a warm welcome, like any service member who goes to fight for our country and lay their life on the line should be: "Because I was embarrassed. So when I came home from the war, we were being protested against. So when I got to the airport, I was in my uniform, I'm all proud, I'm like, I survived, you know, I'm really happy to be home. And in Baltimore, there were protestors, and they were throwing things at us. They were just like, 'You're killers.' They were protesting the war, Bush babies and all and I was like, oh, so this is how my country feels about us?" The whole situation is so sad, and obviously it's heartbreaking that any veteran could ever be homeless, though it's dark reality many face when coming back from war or getting out of service. Good for Michael for shining a light on it, and you can watch the clip for yourself here: I have to leave this here now, too... I just love this song: "Hey Driver" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8LTi_zkGuY