Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong compares Donald Trump to Hitler

Billie Joe speaks exclusively to Kerrang! Magazine

Billie Joe Armstrong and Donald Trump
Published 17th Aug 2016

Speaking exclusively in this week’s Kerrang! Magazine, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.

Hitting out at the billionaire businessman turned Presidential hopeful, Billie Joe said some of Trump’s tactics are comparable to those used by the Nazi leader in the 1930s.

"The worst problem I see about Trump is who his followers are," Billie Joe explained. "I actually feel bad for them, because they're poor, working-class people who can't get a leg up. They're pissed off and he's preyed on their anger.

“He just said, 'You have no options and I'm the only one, and I'm going to take care of it myself.' I mean, that's f***ing Hitler, man!

"I don't even know how else to explain it. I wish I were over-exaggerating. And sometime maybe I do over-exaggerate with (George W) Bush. But with Trump, I just can't wait until he's gone."

Billie Joe went on to reveal that themes on ‘Revolution Radio’ echo the tense political climate Stateside even though the songs were written before the Presidential race began.

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"This is the most chaos I've ever seen in an election,” he continued. “It's just so freaky. I don't want to add more of the outrage or anger. I'd just try to reflect it.

“This is the first time that this election has preyed on fear and anger. And I think with both of those, we're sort of in this fight-or-flight mode. Everybody's freaked out.

“Neither side, nobody can rationalise with each other because everybody is stuck in fear and in anger, and there's nothing in between. In a nutshell, that is what the record reflects. But I'm trying to also look at myself as part of the problem."

He added: "It's interesting. These songs were written before this presidential election. I use a lot of metaphor, and I blow things out, as any good punk rocker should.

“And it was interesting to see how songs like 'Bang Bang' and 'Say Goodbye' went from metaphor to literal, and that's the part that was tripping me out. It was almost, kind of like, predicting the future, in a way."

Boasting that hard-hitting lead single ‘Bang Bang’, ‘Revolution Radio’ is released on Friday 7th October.

You can read the full interview with Billie Joe, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool in this week’s Kerrang!, which is available to buy now!

You can find out more about it right here.

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