Roger Waters: The President ‘Is Your Enemy’ And Wants To ‘Keep People Dumb’
Roger Waters has never shied away from his political views, and this includes his feelings about Donald Trump. With his new album Is This The Life We Really Want? slated to be released on June 2 and his new “Us + Them” tour having just kicked off, Waters is ready once again to talk politics.
To promote his latest tour which just began in Kansas City, Missouri, Roger Waters insinuated that one of the central themes of his new record and tour was to fight the powers that be, which in this case would be Donald Trump, as Esquire reports.
“I’m going everywhere, and the message will be the same, that the resistance began January 20 and it’s up to us to stand up, together.”
Roger Waters was still vigorously working on Is This The Life We Really Want? last October when he played on the “Desert Trip,” alongside other artists and bands such as Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, The Who, and The Rolling Stones. However, it was Roger Waters who elicited the most attention with his use of a neon balloon in the shape of a pig on which was fashioned a shouting vision of Donald Trump and had the words “F*ck Trump and his wall” affixed to it, as Esquire reported.
Some of the more die-hard Trump supporters were reported to have walked out of the Roger Waters segment of the show last October, but most fans remained. Waters has said that it was originally his plan to have read a long political speech during his performance where he would have discussed the betrayal Americans felt over the election and Donald Trump, yet he chose not to give this speech, for fear that the attention span of the audience would have been too short during a rock concert.
Despite not giving his intended speech, Roger Waters is emphatic in his view that Donald Trump is ruining people’s lives and that the president himself, rather than the Mexicans he would like to build a wall around, is the real enemy.
“But they also had to understand that they had been betrayed by Donald Trump and his kind, not by the Mexicans or the Chinese or whoever he was telling them was the enemy. Because they’re not the enemy. He is! This guy who is trying to get you to vote for him is your enemy! This is the guy who is destroying your lives.”
Last night I saw Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) perform and it was the GREATEST MOMENT of my life. He threw the MADDEST shade, even the confetti pic.twitter.com/YgHzt04Lp3
— Mattie Parrigon (@mattieparrigon) May 27, 2017
Of the plan to build a wall across the Mexican border, Roger Waters dismissed the idea, calling it nothing but an “exercise in control” of the American electorate, as Entertainment Weekly reported.
“Keep people dumb, uneducated, whatever, so you can go on milking them.”
Talking about his latest album and tour, Roger Waters insists that the political climate and the world we live in ensures that songs he is playing live currently, like “Pigs” from the Pink Floyd record Animals, are just as relevant now as they were back in 1977.
“I think it conveys the same message as what I was going to say.”
However, Roger Waters is quick to point out that the message of his music is not merely about Donald Trump. Rather, it is about being honest about the true intentions of political leaders and using knowledge to resist them.
“It’s not just about Trump. It’s about resisting all the bulls**t and lies. That message, like I say at the end of ‘Broken Bones,’ ‘We can say f**k you, we will not listen to your bulls**t lies,’ is all over the new album.”
What do you think about the message Roger Waters is sending about Donald Trump and politics today and do you agree or disagree with him?
[Featured Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]
