Having felt that an interview published by The Guardian last weekend misrepresented his position on Donald Trump and Brexit, Brian Eno has issued a statement to clarify his views.
"There was a Guardian interview with me earlier this week which had as its headline, ‘We’ve been in decline for 40 years – Trump is a chance to rethink’," says Eno’s statement. "I didn’t use those words in that way (as reading the article would make clear), and they’ve been taken (particularly by some American websites) to suggest that I support Trump. Anybody familiar with my views will know that this is not true."
He continues: "I think Donald Trump is a complete disaster. And Brexit is a disaster too. That said, what I think is an even greater disaster is that we in the US and the UK – and increasingly the rest of the world – live inside political systems that can produce absurd results like these."
Taking aim at "openly biased media organisations, more concerned about revenue and ratings than giving the public real information," he says that the entire system that has led to these decisions being made needs to change, saying that democracy cannot truly be carried out if the media is "corrupt", adding that Trump could be the turning point for the long decline that he believes our political systems have been on, hoping that "Trump in office will reveal himself for what he really is".
He concludes: "It would have been better if we hadn’t got to this point, but that’s where we are. My feeling is that a Clinton presidency (or even a ‘remain’ vote in Britain), though more comfortable in the short term, wouldn’t have dealt with the fundamental problems that beset both our political systems. Trump has proven beyond doubt that the system is broken, so let’s fix it."
Eno just released his latest album, his first ambient work in five years, called Reflection, via Warp Records. You can read his full statement here.
