Paul McCartney is no fan of President Donald Trump and the political divide he has wrought, arguing during a recent podcast appearance that music is one of the most “valuable” reprieves these days from relentless political infighting in “Trump’s America.”
The Beatles member appeared on Wednesday’s podcast episode of “The Rest Is Entertainment,” and after telling hosts Marina Hyde and Richard Osman that some crowds don’t enjoy the songs he chooses to play, he said his biggest hits still bring people together.
“I mean particularly these days, too, you do something like ‘Hey Jude’ and you see this whole audience singing together,” said McCartney. “And in Trump’s America — and the Republicans and Democrats all at each other’s throats — when we do that song, they’re not.”
The music legend continued, “They’re all loving it and they’re all, it’s like, ‘Wow, this is pretty amazing,’ you know? That suddenly this room has forgotten all of that and it’s not, you know, going to argue with each other. We’re all just going to sing together.”
McCartney has written some of the most renowned and beloved songs of the 20th century and is one of the last two Beatles alive. He has been nominated for a whopping 83 Grammys, winning 19, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II — and is a vehement Trump critic.
The Liverpool native previously revealed that he had climate-change deniers like Trump in mind while writing his 2018 song, “Despite Repeated Warnings,” telling BBC Music at the time that the “mad captain” at its lyrical center was “obviously” meant to be Trump.
The singer-songwriter doubled down in his 2021 book, “The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present.”
“We’re faced with the political situation, particularly in the US, where a braggart has been in charge and seems quite unstable to say the least,” McCartney wrote at the time. “He’s shouting the loudest, but he’s not necessarily the smartest.”
Evan Agostini/Invision/Associated Press
Trump has actively reversed numerous efforts to combat climate change during his time in office, a matter near and dear to McCartney. The “Let It Be” writer isn’t the only British music legend to publicly skewer Trump, however, as Rod Stewart has joined the burgeoning chorus.
The raspy-voiced singer thanked King Charles on Monday for schooling “that little ratbag” Trump with a pointed speech to Congress last month.
McCartney ultimately left off during his podcast appearance on a more unifying note — about people of all stripes singing together.
“So those kind of things, I think, are valuable,” he said. “I like that, and I also like it for them.”