And Finally Artist News

Lana Del Rey says Trump comments were taken out of context

By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 13 January 2021

Lana Del Rey has responded to criticism over comments she made about Donald Trump and the recent violence in Washington DC, which she made during an interview with BBC Radio 1, saying that they have been taking out of context.

Speaking to Annie Mac, the musician said that she didn’t believe Donald Trump had intentionally incited last week’s violent attack, by his supporters, on the US Capitol building. She also said that Trump’s presidency “needed to happen” and that the violence in the US capital was “a huge wake-up call”.

“What I was describing with the BBC was that Trump is so significantly impaired that he may not [have known] what he was doing due to his significant lack of empathy, and the wider-ranging problem is the issue of sociopathy and narcissism in America”, she wrote on Twitter last night.

In the interview, Del Rey said that she believed Trump wouldn’t have been aware of the effect his words could have in inciting violence because “he’s got delusions of grandeur”.

“The madness of Trump, as bad as it was, it really needed to happen”, she then said. “We really needed a reflection of our world’s greatest problem, which is not climate change, but sociopathy and narcissism. Especially in America. It’s going to kill the world. It’s not capitalism, it’s narcissism”.

Back on Twitter last night, she went on: “I don’t appreciate the larger magazines taking my well-intentioned and (believe it or not) liberal comments out of context. It’s actually what I sing about quite often. It’s what I’ve been condemned for saying. You can listen to the entire interview”.

She’s right, you can. It’s available to listen to here.