Lana Del Rey insists claim Donald Trump ‘didn’t know he was inciting a riot’ has been taken out of context
Lana Del Rey defended her remarks about Donald Trump. (Getty)
Lana Del Rey has insisted she did not mean to excuse Donald Trump for inciting the US Capitol riots.
The singer courted controversy after a BBC Radio 1 interview Monday (11 January) in which she was asked about the recent Washington DC insurrection incited by Trump.
“I think, for the people who stormed the Capitol, it’s disassociated rage. They want to wild out somewhere,” she told presenter Annie Mac.
Del Rey added that Trump is clearly “unwell” and claimed that he “doesn’t know that he’s inciting a riot” because he has “delusions of grandeur”.
“The madness of Trump, as bad as it was, it really needed to happen. We really needed a reflection of our world’s greatest problem, which is not climate change, but sociopathy and narcissism,” she added.
After her remarks made headlines, Del Rey took to Twitter to complain her “well-intentioned and believe it or not liberal comments” had been taken out of context.
Her view, she explained, is that “when someone is so deeply deficient in empathy they may not know that they’re the bad guy, and that may be a controversial opinion, but don’t make the controversy that I don’t think that he meant to incite a riot”.
“It’s not the point, is what I was saying,” she continued, adding that the “delusions of grandeur” exhibited by Trump are being reflected “right back to us”, as evidenced in the steep rise in domestic violence reports received throughout the pandemic.
— Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) January 12, 2021
Lana Del Rey defends lack of diversity in new album cover.
In the same BBC interview, Lana Del Rey addressed the furore that surrounded her new album artwork earlier this week.
The Chemtrails Over the Country Club cover art was released Monday (11 January) and found the singer immediately on the defensive over its lack of diversity (it shows Del Rey surrounded by a group of mostly white friends).
“As it happens when it comes to my amazing friends and this cover yes there are people of colour on this record’s picture and that’s all I’ll say about that but thank you,” Del Rey wrote in a pre-emptive defence. She was criticised for naming several such friends and claiming her “boyfriends have been rappers” – as many saw it, pulling the “I have a Black friend” card.
Del Rey told Annie Mac she knew the image would lead to criticism, “so when they actually started saying things, I responded and I just said: ‘I got a lot of issues but inclusivity ain’t one of them'”.
