TOM MORELLO Calls DONALD TRUMP An 'Orange-Faced Demagogue'

In a brand new interview with NME, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE and PROPHETS OF RAGE guitarist Tom Morello spoke about the fact that all of his bands have acted as the voice of the same disenfranchised people that Donald Trump is being presented as the champion of.

"I think that the symptoms of people feeling left behind by the global economy, Donald Trump provides an easy — and not just Donald Trump; I think it's Brexit as well, and in Brazil there's a right-wing, populist fascist in power," he said (see video below). "People who are left behind by the neoliberal policies — white working-class people, generally — are susceptible to demagogues who use racism and and anti-immigration sentiment to stir them up so they don't focus on what the real problem is, which is a system that underserves the planet. The planet who own and run the planet don't deserve to, and they're running it into the ground. They're creating a miserable environmental state of affairs and economic state of affairs for a lot of people. Now, one of the reasons why we've been playing music for as long as we have is to provide an alternative set of ideals — like progressive politics, solidarity, environmental sanity, anti-racism, anti-fascism — as another way to deal with the inequities of life, rather than listening to some orange-faced demagogue saying it's the Muslims' fault, it's the Mexicans' fault. Trust me, it's not. It's his fucking fault. [Laughs]"

Added RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE and PROPHETS OF RAGE drummer Brad Wilk: "And at the end of the day, it's not gonna even matter if we don't get the environment right. It's not gonna matter who it is. By 2028, they said all the glaciers in India are gonna be gone. So think about that, and think about that happening all around the world. We're not gonna be able to survive that. It's gonna be a horrific situation. So we should do something soon."

Continued Tom: "The cornerstone message of all the bands we've been in is that the world is not going to change itself; that is up to you. And the people who have changed the world in progressive, radical or even revolutionary ways throughout history have been people that had no more money, courage, power, influence or creativity than anybody watching or listening to this right now. So get off your ass and do it."

Last fall, Morello, who has been very vocal for or against various causes since his first onstage protest in 1993, said that the best way to fight Trump is mass resistance to counter politicians who will stop at nothing to control the majority of Americans. He also described Trump's first two years in office as "an abomination."

Morello's latest solo LP, titled "The Atlas Underground", was released in October.