Donald Trump once declared himself to be Bruce Springsteen's "biggest fan".

The US president has been locked in a war of words with the Born in the USA hitmaker after the veteran rocker repeatedly criticised his administration on stage, and while he recently branded the musician a a "dried up prune" , Bruce's former drummer, Vini 'Mad Dog' Lopez, has revealed the former Apprentice star once held a very different viewpoint.

Vini met Trump at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey when he was working as a caddy and remembered his interaction with the 79-year-old business mogul as warm.

The former golf caddy told the California Post newspaper: "He was very nice to me. He was very inquisitive and introduced me to Melania."

As Trump left the course, he asked Vini to do him a "big favour".

Vini claimed he said: "Tell Bruce I'm his biggest fan."

The 77-year-old musician - who was an original member of The E Street Band - thinks Bruce should show more respect to the president and stop attacking him on stage.

He said: "You gotta have respect for the president.

"Trump is the president of the United States -- everyone should have respect for him.

"He is the president of the United States. And if I was standing there talking to him, I would have mucho respect for the man. I wouldn't talk to him about anything that's going on [politically]."

Vini stressed he isn't opposed to Bruce's statements but doesn't want to see politics tear the country apart.

He said: "I am not against what Bruce is saying now.

"Maybe when I was 20, I was a little more extreme, but I'm 77 now, so the extremities are gone.

"It's so divided, the political part. It's a tough one on me."

And the veteran musician insisted his own current group, The Wonderful Winos, are deliberately non-political.

He said: "My band, whatever we think, we don't go there in our music."

Despite his comments, Vini insisted he and Bruce - who he played with for six years before parting ways because he was "too jazzy" - are on "perfect" times and still in occasional contact.

He said: "If he wants me to do something, he'll call me.

"Sometimes it's just because he hasn't seen me for a while. And he'll call me and say. 'Hey, come around here.' "

"And most of the time it's terrible when I call him because it's when one of our crew died and he doesn't know that. That's happening more and more."