Making a statement. Green Day takes aim at President-elect Donald Trump in the new lyric video for their latest single, “Troubled Times,” which was released on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday, January 16, in honor of the late civil rights leader.
In the video, which you can watch above, images of protests for causes such as civil rights and women’s suffrage flash across the screen. Those celebratory images are juxtaposed against shots of a Trump-like character wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat and spreading hateful messages to the masses. At one point, a close-up shot shows a cluster of hooded KKK members inside the mouth of the video’s Trump-inspired tyrant.
“What part of history we learned / When it’s repeated / Some things will never overcome / If we don’t seek it,” lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong sings in the tune, seemingly referencing the current political climate of the United States. “The world stops turning / Paradise burning / So don’t think twice … We live in troubled times.”
With the release of Green Day’s lyric video for “Troubled Times” — a track from their 12th studio album, Revolution Radio — Armstrong, 44, issued a statement explaining why he decided to share the politically charged project with fans on MLK Day. “Today we celebrate love and compassion more than ever,” he said.
This isn’t the first time the band has vocally opposed the ex–Celebrity Apprentice host and the anti-LGBT, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and racist rhetoric he frequently encouraged throughout his presidential campaign. Back in November, Green Day slammed Trump during a passionate performance of their 2016 track “Bang Bang” at the American Music Awards. They tweaked the song’s lyrics and repeatedly chanted, “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA.”
And at the 2016 MTV Europe Music Awards on November 6 — just two days before Trump defeated his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton in last year’s election — they changed the “subliminal mindf–k America” lyric of “American Idiot” to “subliminal mind-Trump America.”
Watch the lyric video for “Troubled Times” above.
