Bruce Springsteen: Donald Trump is "deeply damaged"

There is a moment in his show on Broadway where Bruce Springsteen reflects on the sanctity of democracy.

Before singing the first lines of The ghost of Tom Joad, His 1995 folk anthem inspired by John Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath and Woody Guthrie, Springsteen, dressed in a black t-shirt and dark jeans on a downtown Manhattan scene, tries to make sense of the cultural and partisan shift that is occurring in the United States. United.

"These are times when we have also seen people walking by and in the highest offices of our country, who want to talk to our darkest angels, who want to call the ugliest and most controversial ghosts of the past. America, "he says sold-out crowds of 975 at performances of Springsteen at Broadway Walter Kerr Theater. "And they want to destroy the idea of ​​an America for all – it's their intention."

It is now revealed in a new interview, unsurprisingly, that "they" are only one person: President Trump.

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"[Trump] has no interest in unifying the country, really, and actually has an interest in doing the opposite and dividing us, which it does almost every day, "said Springsteen Squire magazine. "So, it's just a crime against humanity, as far as I'm concerned – it's a terrible and terrible message to send to the world if you're in that job and in that position." Is just a horrible and terrible message. "

"I think it's a scary moment for any conscientious American," he added.

Before the release of an album and the Netflix special of her Tony Award-winning Broadway show, Springsteen opened a personal profile at Squire this Tuesday, in which he again accused Trump of "deep attack" and "dangerous" to stir up the politics of fear, while frankly discussing how he was struggling with his own health mental.

At one point, Michael Hainey, executive editor of the magazine, told Springsteen that the rocker had made him reconsider the The links that unite, The opening title of his 1980 album River, Was not just a love story, but rather "about the DNA family bonds you can not escape". Springsteen quoted the president as an example of what happens when someone abandons the bonds of family, community and fellow citizens.

"You can not give up these things – it will rot your heart at the end of the day," Springsteen said. "If you want to see someone who – is looking at Trump, he has abandoned many of these things, and it has affected him, he is deeply damaged."

Springsteen added, "That's why it's dangerous." Anyone in this situation who does not deeply feel those bonds that unite his bonds is a dangerous man, and that's very pitiful. "

The singer, who has long given voice to unheard and disenfranchised people, has called Trump everything from a "jerk" to a "tragedy of our democracy" to a "crook". Shortly before the inauguration of 2017, Springsteen, Democrat and supporter of Hillary Clinton in 2016, entrusted Marc Maron WTF podcast that his goal was to play his "very very small role" by ensuring that the nation kept its principles during Trump's presidency. In June, he stepped down from his Broadway show to condemn the "inhumane" treatment of thousands of children separated from their families at the border, The Guardian reported. He never mentioned Trump by name, or any member of his administration, calling them only "senior government officials."

Springsteen said that while he thought the country would survive Trump's administration, he was worried about whether the next president would be able to repair the political divide.

"The founding fathers were good enough to face their fears and fears of the country," Springsteen said. "And that's the old cliché where geniuses built the system for an idiot to handle it, and we're testing that theory right now.

"I think we're going to survive Trump, but I do not know if I see a unifying figure on the horizon, that's worrying, because partisan politics and the divided country in the middle are something extremely dangerous. "

the Squire The interview also provided a better understanding of Springsteen's mental health struggle. He explained that the diagnosis of his father, paranoid schizophrenic, had not only put him in a new context for his childhood, but also by a new fear.

"I'm close enough to [mental illness] where I know I do not feel very good myself, "he said. I have had to deal with many of these problems over the years, and I am taking a variety of medications that allow me to stay stable. otherwise I can swing quite dramatically and. . . just. . . the wheels can come off a bit. So we have to look in our family. I have to watch my kids and I was lucky there. He ran in my family well before my father. "

The success of Springsteen at Broadway, A concert piece based on his 2016 autobiography, Born to run, Helped fuel a record high season season on Broadway. New generating revenue generation for the 2017-2018 season, the show has grossed more than $ 106 million since its debut in October 2017, Forbes reported. With an average ticket price of $ 511, the show earned the highest average price in Broadway history, according to Forbes. Unless announced extension, the show should end December 15, between the release of an album of the series on December 14 and Netflix special December 16.

In his autobiography, Springsteen described a period in America where fear was in the air. He wrote about the nation at one time "that the moral high ground had been swept away, that the dream we had of ourselves had been altered and that the future would not be assured forever".

He wrote about 1978, not 2018. But is the United States better off today?

"I do not think it's better," Springsteen said.

So, asked Hainey, is it worse today than it was 40 years ago?

"Well, I guess 40 years and over would make it worse, and I really feel that people feel beleaguered, and sometimes for reasons that I do not agree with and that are regrettable. I said that, whether it's the changing face of the nation or … I think these people feel legitimately besieged, their way of life is somehow threatened – it's threatened in an existential way. "

He continued, "And maybe that explains Trump and maybe not, but … it's always been part of American history, and it's still part of it today."