Lana del Rey: ‘The madness of Trump, as bad as it was, it really needed to happen’

Lana Del Rey arrives at The Recording Academy And Clive Davis' 2020 Pre-GRAMMY Gala held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 25, 2020 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States.

On Monday, Lana del Rey was trending on social media because of her bizarre comments about inclusivity as part of her big album-cover reveal. We’ve known for a while now that Lana says dumb sh-t about race and politics and feminism, and at this point, I wish her publicist would encourage her to develop an air of mystery and silence. I’m pretty tired of trying to sort through her comments about how her (white) fragility needs to be protected, or how she has Black friends so she can’t be problematic. But until her publicist steps up, we’re getting interviews from Lana like this, where she talks herself into a MAGA corner, basically.

Lana Del Rey addressed the controversy surrounding her Chemtrails Over the Country Club album cover and the U.S. Capitol riot during a BBC Radio 1 interview Monday (Jan. 11). Del Rey chatted with Annie Mac about the lack of diversity on the album cover, which is a vintage black-and-white shot featuring her longtime girlfriends. The Norman F—ing Rockwell star told Mac she suspected the issue would arise once she unveiled it. “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.’ It just isn’t. You can’t just make it my problem… My friends, my family, my whatever… they’re not all one way and we’re not the ones storming the Capitol. We voted for Biden.”

She elaborated further on the Capitol riot, when Trump supporters stormed the building on Jan. 6 to contest the results of the presidential election, leaving five people dead. “I think, for the people who stormed the Capitol, it’s disassociated rage. They want to wild out somewhere,” she said after calling Trump “unwell” and claiming he didn’t know “he’s inciting a riot” while his supporters describe it as a “revolution.” “And it’s like, we don’t know how to find a way to be wild in our world.”

She touches on feeling “wild” in a standout lyric from the first verse of her title track, which got a whimsically wicked music video treatment: “I’m not unhinged or unhappy, I’m just wild.”

“If I go to the Brentwood Country Mart barefoot or whatever, I’m not insane; I’m connected to the earth. … I think people are having to re-evaluate what is strange and not strange. Like watching the people storm the Capitol, everyone gets to go look at that and figure out what Capitols they’ve been storming this year in their own freakin’ lives. ‘Cause everyone’s running amok. You know, half the people I know are just jerks. Like I could picture them being like, ‘Well, we need a change.’ And then other half of the people I know are like watching them with tears in their eyes, in disbelief. And it is sad, it is scary. But it could happen in any country.”

Del Rey says she thinks the last four years were necessary in order for there to be change in this country. “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. Especially in America. It’s going to kill the world. It’s not capitalism, it’s narcissism. I was surprised we didn’t have a live-television psychopath crazy person as a president a long time ago because that’s what we see on TV and that’s what we see on Instagram.”

[From Billboard]

As it so often happens with Lana, I feel like there’s one okay point she’s trying to make and that one point is surrounded by deeply offensive horsesh-t. Does Lana not even understand what she’s doing here, that she’s infantilizing terrorists and minimizing both their actions and their motives? People f–king died, elected officials were terrorized and GALLOWS WERE ERECTED. This isn’t just “hey, I go barefoot sometimes, and my neighbor Did A Coup, we all like to be wild.” And if your takeaway from the Trump era is just “we need to be less narcissistic,” please sit there on your narcissistic ass and think about the mind-numbing privilege you have.

So after all of that, Lana heard the criticism and she clarified with a series of tweets and a video. I can’t, with any of this.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, WENN.

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32 Responses to “Lana del Rey: ‘The madness of Trump, as bad as it was, it really needed to happen’”

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  1. Tiffany says:

    When I called this trust find idiot out a few years ago, I was blasted on this very site by her defenders.

    I. Told. Y’all.

    • Christina says:

      Naw, never liked her. Sorry that you got blasted. Never understood the fascination. I need to listen to one of her acclaimed albums at some point. I don’t get it. While I am no rocket scientist, she just seems really dumb.

    • Wiglet Watcher says:

      I was indifferent to her and I’m sorry that happen to you. I only know of her from here.

      If she’s so level with these atrocities Trump brought upon this country and all the deaths that “had to happen” let her call up those terrorized and say it. Or tell them families of those who lost their lives For existing it had to happen.

    • Seraphina says:

      I have clue who she is.

    • Drea says:

      Yea, sorry that you got blasted. This girl has always sucked.

    • Suze says:

      I haven’t liked her since I heard her dumbass diss track of Lady Gaga. Sorry you got yelled at.

  2. Renee says:

    WTF is wrong with this woman? She is so privileged and oblivious to the suffering of others that she doesn’t care about anyone else. Her talking about narcissism is rich…..hello pot meet kettle.

  3. minx says:

    Oh just STFU.

  4. Elizabeth says:

    “It needed to happen” is such a privileged thing to say. I hate when people moralize about YOUR suffering, not theirs, saying it is for the best. No, it actually was awful, and it was my experience, not yours. Why do people think that is helpful?

    Probably the Trump years didn’t mean anything to Lana in terms of money or her safety or her dignity. Some of us had it worse.

    • smcollins says:

      IIRC Susan Sarandon served up this same line in relation to Trump in 2016 (she was a Bernie or Bust supporter and was planning to vote 3rd Party). Her argument was along the lines of Trump needing to happen to get the people to rise up and revolt for change, or some crap like that. Sounds like Lana has bought into that same line of thinking.

      • lucy2 says:

        Sarandon is exactly who I thought of. It’s all easy to say when you’re white and privileged and safe in your mansion. Lana and Susan would both do well to speak with people who have actually suffered through this

        I hope something good comes after this. I hope the GOP is fractured and the Democrats can be in charge for a long time, and that if the GOP rebuilds,it’s for the better, not in the direction of trumpism. I hope people realize their words and actions have consequences. I hope certain members are expelled from Congress. I hope this was our rock bottom.

  5. Annaloo. says:

    This is reminding me of an exchange between Ana Marie Cox (I think that is the pundit’s name ) and a guy from the South. It was before Clinton v Trump 2016, and she was rightfully pointing out that Trump’s election could be the harbinger of disaster. She went on to a diatribe of how stupid people were for supporting Trump are (and she was right)

    The guy from the South maintained his point that he was on her side, agrees w her but also added that we shouldn’t speak down or insultingly of Trump supporters inorder to do this. Ana Marie balked, but then he replied w a response that stopped her:

    “Do you want to be right, or do you want to win?”

    Naturally, she said she wanted both, but their conversation pause said that they knew it wasn’t possible to do both. This line has haunted me for 4 yrs bc I know there’s a key of truth to it. No, I will not be nice or acquiesce to someone who denies racism or enables bigotry across the board– that is fundamentall,core, primary issue w the GOP. I have others, but that’s the main issue.

    Like Ana Marie, I want to be right and I want to win. What do we need to do now? These democrats are up there letting the GOP run the narrative that they are stoking the fire with impeachment, when the argument should be couched that these aholes should never have thought to storm the Capitol. Trump kicks a hornet’s nest, then offers a solution, then we get attacked and faulted BC HE kicked the hornet’s nest. I want to win, i want to win but I want these backward people like Lana del Rey to understand why they are wrong! If people need to be wild, it doesn’t mean we create spaces for them the destroy our Nation’s institional halls where our democracy is at work.

    I truly fear the country is at an impasse… Do we want to be right, do we want to win?

    I don’t think Trump will be punished for this insurrection.

  6. Shannon says:

    This is a case study in white privilege and navel gazing.

  7. Sam the Pink says:

    The only way you can actually believe this is if you personally have suffered nothing under Trump.

  8. Case says:

    Capitalism and climate change are also huge issues, Lana.

  9. Belle says:

    I can say that without the awfulness of trump being thrown in our faces daily, society may have NEVER looked at making the changes that we see happening right now at such a rapid state. His disgusting ways were so inexcusable that you had to LOOK and pay attention. No more being politically correct and pretending to CARE about both sides as so many of our other leaders and politicians have done in the past. It was SO CLEAR that one side was being diminished while another elevated, that there was never equality like so many pretended was the reality. Trump inability to do the BS politicizing, allowed society to face the music on so many topics. He was awful, I am not supporting him but his brazen demeaner brought change, showed what the republican party was really about – given so many of them supported him because in so many ways, THOSE WERE THE IDEALS – restricting women’s reproductive rights, white supremacy, trickle down economy only supporting the rich etc etc…. Do I wish it was different, of course, who wants a Trump but Trump didn’t create inequality, it highlighted it and showed it for what it was whicH then affected CHANGE. As a minority, black, immigrant, female, so much has been highlighted for my identity and the changes I see brought about because of his TERRIBLE administration,I can only hope means PROGRESS FOR ALL.

  10. Jensies says:

    This is the worst possible response.

  11. Miranda says:

    Well, having her head so far up her own ass at least kinda explains why her makeup looks like shit.

  12. Jaded says:

    Oh for the love of Pete will someone tell her to put a sock in it. Whenever she opens her mouth you can be assured inane drivel will come out of it.

  13. Jessica says:

    Go tell the 600+ orphaned kids at the border that it “needed” to happen.

    I love a lot Lana’s music but most of her opinions are garbage.

  14. Angel says:

    I kinda get what she is saying. For example : It’s for the people who said racism was over after Obama was elected president. Everyone see how much racism is alive and well in the us. Plus Trump did get some people to show their real faces.

    • Bexington says:

      I agree. I was ignorant and assumed once the baby boomers died off, the younger generations would be progressive and the Republican Party would go extinct. I think people have a problem with the word “needed”. She should’ve said it was inevitable that we’d get a president likes trump. Although, we really did need a collective wake up call. I dunno, not really understanding the outrage other than that she seems to court controversy by speaking about sensitive topics. Maybe she secretly enjoys feeling misunderstood? It’s her brand at this point.

  15. Carmelita says:

    Shut the frak up, Lana

  16. Charfromdarock says:

    “ he lack of diversity on the album cover, which is a vintage black-and-white shot featuring her longtime girlfriends. The Norman F—ing Rockwell star told Mac she suspected the issue would arise once she unveiled it. “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.’ ”
    Self awareness isn’t her strong suit is it?

  17. Veronica S. says:

    Amazing how many uneducated, wealthy white celebrities want to tell us this “needed” to happen, like minorities haven’t been warning America about the roots of its divide for decades and what it would lead to. I guess it’s really easy to find revolution romantic when you know you have the money to escape the fallout.

    Americans needed to wake up to the cancer that was eating us alive, but there were ways of doing that that didn’t involve putting a literal fascist in office and damaging so many of our institutions in the process. Progressives are now working uphill against a wall of conservative courts that Republicans have packed in the last four years, including the Supreme Court. I still don’t think that’s sunk into people yet how big of a deal it’s going to be for us in the long run.

  18. blast says:

    OH MY GAWD LANA PLEASE JUST SHUT UP AND GET SOBER

    signed, someone who likes your music but thinks you’ve gone nuts

  19. Beach Dreams says:

    This woman is pure trash. It should be quite obvious to everyone who’s not a willfully blind stan that she IS racist. Racism comes in many forms and doesn’t necessitate screaming racial slurs or waving Confederate flags. Lana’s racism is pretty pervasive in its detached and defensive “I have friends from x background” attitude. I’ve seen it said elsewhere that she embodies the “white moderate” that MLK once cautioned against and IMO that’s right on the money.

    Also…she clearly has delusions of grandeur. Claiming she’s one of the only genuine artists and that she’s always been inclusive without even trying to? Looks like she bought into the hype she got for the dreadfully one-note NFR in 2019.