Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters blasted President Trump as a con-man keen on kleptocracy in an interview published Wednesday as he readies the release of his first studio album in 25 years, “Is This the Life We Really Want?”
“The people who believed all his [expletive] about making America great, getting their jobs back, are going to realize sooner or later it was all a confidence trick and he doesn’t give a [expletive] about them. He doesn’t care about anybody but himself — it’s his shtick,” Mr. Waters told Billboard with respect to the president, the music magazine reported Wednesday.
“I think they’re beginning to realize,” the former Pink Floyd frontman said of Mr. Trump’s supporters. “They’re kicking and screaming, going ’I thought you were going to help us.’ He hasn’t done anything to help anybody. What he has done was reduce corporate income taxes from 35 percent to 15 percent, and they must surely be going, ’uh, I thought you were going to help us?’”
Mr. Waters, 73, has repeatedly taken aim at the president and his administration in recent months during live performances and interviews, and last year compared Mr. Trump to former Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Speaking to Billboard, however, the British-born rocker suggested he won’t be retiring his attack on Mr. Trump anytime soon — the president is a fixture on both his forthcoming solo album as well as during future tour dates, he told the music magazine.
The title track to Mr. Waters’ forthcoming album begins with a snippet of Mr. Trump discussing CNN’s critical coverage of his presidency during a February press conference, according to previews.
“I mean it’s story after story after story is bad. I won. I won. And the other thing, chaos because zero chaos. We are running — this is a fine-tuned machine,” Mr. Trump said at the time.
On tour, attendees can expect to hear the same quote in-between two of Pink Floyd’s best known songs, Mr. Waters told Billboard.
“In the show I’m putting that quote edited between the song ’Us and Them’ and ’Money,’ so it will come over the introduction to the song ’Money’ — you’ll get him going ’I won! I won!’ Ka-ching, ka-ching. ’Chaos? There is no chaos. It’s a well-oiled machine.’ Ka-ching, ka-ching. ’I won! I won!’ Ka-ching,” Mr. Waters said.
“So it’s sort of him admitting what we’re experiencing right now is a Kleptocracy, this is just a way to steal money, and he’s laughing all the way to the bank,” he added.
Mr. Waters began his “Us and Them” tour last week in Kansas City and is slated to perform in over four-dozen cities in the U.S. and Canada before wrapping up in Vancouver in the fall.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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