Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl said that Donald Trump “just seems like a massive jerk.” In a new interview, he stepped up his frequent criticism of the president by saying that he is “ashamed” of him.
“The American Dream was still tangible, still desirable,” he told the British edition of GQ. “Today, the American Dream is broken. I’ve probably travelled internationally more than our current president and the one thing I understand that he doesn’t is that the world isn’t as big as you think it is. It is all in your neighborhood. India, Asia, Iceland aren’t other solar systems. I am ashamed of our president. I feel apologetic for it when I travel.”
But he also acknowledged that he wasn’t likely to change anyone’s opinions, and that, regardless of where they stand politically, music is a unifying force: “Listen, who cares what I think about guns or religion, but the thing about Trump that stings the most is this: he just seems like a massive jerk. Right?” he continued. “I know a lot of wonderful people who don’t share my politics and you can bet tomorrow night in the stadium not everyone will share the same opinion or hold the same views. But when I sing ‘My Hero’ they will all sing it with me. In the three hours that I am on stage, none of that matters.”
Last year, Grohl spoke about the influence that Trump, then running for office, had on the lyrics found on Concrete and Gold, which he said had a theme of “hope and desperation,” for the future of the world his children will inherit.
“I’m looking at a candidate that has blatant disregard for the future environmentally, when it comes to women’s rights, diplomatically,” he said. “I have three daughters that are going to survive me for decades — how are they going to get on unless there’s some positive and progressive change?”
He later revealed a conversation with one of his daughters on the night of Trump’s election, where he used it to teach her a lesson: “I basically told her, ‘You can’t give up hope. You just have to fight the good fight. You have to stand up and represent the things that you actually believe in.’ That’s what everybody should do, but I think it’s hard for a kid to understand that.”