John Lydon has spoken to NME about his past controversial championing of Donald Trump, describing him as “one of the most horrible little runts I’ve ever seen,” and clarifying “I’ll never like him. I’ll vote for him but that’s about it.”
For years, Lydon has dismayed some Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd fans with his enthusiasm for the 45th and 47th president of the United States, even donning a red MAGA (Make America Great Again) cap during interviews. In 2017, he called Trump “magnificent” and “a cat amongst the pigeons“, before claiming that his opponents would “destroy” America.
He would go on to call Trump “the only hope” and state that Joe Biden was “incapable” of leading the US.
Addressing his contentious support, Lydon – who now lives in California – has now told NME he liked the idea of Trump as a disruptor rather than an individual. “It’s six of one, half a dozen of the other. I’m not a slave to his system,” he said. “I don’t even like him. I met him once, a long time before he ran for election, and I thought he was one of the most horrible little runts I’ve ever seen.
“But as a politician – which he’s not, which is a blessing – because of the state America is in, it’s so bad, it’s going to need a nasty-ass feller to fucking say no to a lot of it. And he’s the one.”
Despite Trump’s track record of relentless false or misleading claims, Lydon added: “He’s not going to tell any of the regular routines or lies. America voted for change. We want to try something different here. We’re fed up with the corruption in the institutions, so yippee. But no, I’ll never like him. I’ll vote for him, but that’s about it.”
From his home in LA, Lydon, who became an American citizen in 2013, claimed that his personal experience as a full-time carer for his late wife Nora Forster (who died of Alzheimer’s in 2023) partly influenced his vote.
As he witnessed the June 2024 presidential debate between Democrat Joe Biden and Trump in Atlanta, he had questions over the former’s apparent cognitive decline. Biden’s performance in the debate, where he appeared confused and stumbled over words, triggered concerns among Democrats regarding his ability to win, which ultimately led to him withdrawing as the party’s nominee in favour of Kamala Harris.
“Of course I voted for Trump,” Lydon said. “Hello?! My wife was dying of Alzheimer’s, right? She knew that Biden was a raging idiot. How can you vote for someone who was clearly suffering from something? It could have been dementia or Alzheimer’s…but he was clearly not a well man and shouldn’t have pushed out that way. And certainly not pushed on a well-educated audience, no matter what they say about Americans – they are better educated than most. And Trump supporters are not idiots. They know what they’ve had to endure.”
Lydon’s high-profile endorsements of Brexit and Trump, and his espousing of “anti-woke” views, has been met with widespread criticism from many peers and fans. Some have pondered whether his views are an extension of his former Johnny Rotten punk-provocateur wind-up merchant persona. His ex-Sex Pistol bandmate, Glen Matlock, suggested his embrace of Make America Great Again was an act of attention-seeking nihilism, opining he “would do anything to get publicity…I don’t think that’s good enough, really, you know?…You can’t say you support Trump and wear a MAGA hat for a laugh. It’s not funny.”
Speaking to NME last year, Matlock added: “Way back when, there was something about John that I didn’t get on with because I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. And him coming out with that kind of encapsulates the whole thing, really. John was fantastic back then. He wrote some great lyrics, but did he really mean ‘em? Ah, that’s the thing. I never found him that sincere.”
Others in his old band have struck a less strident tone. Discussing whether Lydon’s Trumpism might tarnish the Pistols’ legacy, Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones told NME: “No, not at all. Everyone’s got a right to like whoever they wanna like. I know it’s probably not in favour, especially when John was wearing that [MAGA] t-shirt [in 2018], but I like that John stands up and don’t go along with the flow. He sticks his neck out a lot more. I can’t be bothered. I don’t want no anger from people!”
Yet some have felt that Lydon is betraying the values of punk, a stance that might be most succinctly summed up by Paul Weller , when he claimed, back in 2008, that Lydon had “become the antithesis of what he once was.”
“Did he say that about me?”, countered Lydon, speaking to NME. “He’s got the words wrong – he’s turned into everything he was against! That don’t mean the rest of us!,” he added with a laugh. “I like Paul, but he’s not the brightest spark on the planet. Let’s be honest, he started out with a band that was simulating the Mod movement from the ‘60s, so that’s not a good start. You’re already imitating someone else’s time. So be careful Paul. Don’t point fingers my way, I’ll bite them off mate!”
Questioned over whether he’d lost friends because of his outspoken political views, Lydon replied: “They wouldn’t be my friends, would they? Actually, a lot of people are jumping on me, ‘cause they go ‘Trump! Trump! Trump!’ You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t live here. I do. I connect with working class America because I’m working class fucking English.”
Lydon continued: “I know what it’s like – you can have all your socialism up there and everything’s lovely and you’re all patting yourselves on the back, but who do you expect to pick up your garbage? My lot. If you don’t make it better for my lot, then you lot can fuck off! Vive la revolution! And it ain’t gonna be led by communists or Marxists.
“When you’re poor, you want to do the best you can and get out of that. That’s always been my attitude. I’m not going to change that and you lot from a more privileged background don’t have any right to tell me otherwise.”
Lydon was speaking to NME barely a week on from Trump’s inauguration in January, which saw performances from Carrie Underwood and the Village People, whose anthem ‘Y.M.C.A.’ has become a staple of his rallies. Rappers, including Snoop Dogg and Soulja Boy, weathered condemnation for playing his Crypto Ball days ahead of it. As a visible MAGA supporter in a largely anti-Trump music industry, was Lydon asked to play any events?
“No,” he responded. “Never even thought about it. I don’t think I would do it. God, imagine the red tape and rigmarole.”
Trump spent his first hours in office signing a blizzard of executive orders, including rolling back Biden-era protections for transgender Americans and paving the way to carry out his pledge of mass deportations. These edicts prompted the Episcopal bishop of Washington to appeal directly to Trump to “have mercy upon” those across the country singled out by the new administration’s immigration and LGBTQ+ policies.
When asked how he would respond to LGBTQ+ people and immigrants – the marginalised communities you might expect punk was supposed to stand up for – who might feel fearful at the prospect of a second Trump presidency, Lydon replied: “That’s because they’re working through a wonderful minefield of misinformation,” swatting away any concerns as fake news before focussing on his favoured subject of immigration.
Lydon, himself the son of immigrants, continued: “Nobody’s said ‘boo’ about stopping immigration here in America, but we’re definitely up for stopping illegal immigration. Now that’s a word that was cleverly altered by the Democrat party to drop ‘illegal’ and just make it migrants. They’re not migrants – they’re breaking into your house, into your world, your universe, and you have to pay taxes for them! That’s not right. Think of your own flat. Your own house. Do you think that anyone has the right to walk in and fiddle about and take what they like? No! View it that way. ‘Get out of my garden – those are my dandelions.'”
In other news, Lydon recently poignantly opened up about how the upcoming Public Image Ltd tour and working on new “raucous” music is helping him navigate bereavement. “Sadness is an energy,” he said, in echoes of PiL’s iconic 1986 track ‘Rise’ (which stated that ‘Anger is an energy’). “It can either be applied or you can let it eat you alive. The second option is not very interesting to me.”
Talking about musician friends who had contacted him in the wake of the passing of his wife, Lydon said “Many people did, and that was lovely. I’ve got to say Paul [Daley] from Leftfield [whom Lydon collaborated with on the track ‘Open Up’ in 1993] sent me a lovely message – that hit my heart.” Asked if any of his estranged former Sex Pistols bandmates had reached out, he replied: “No. They’re dead to me. They’re poison.”
Lydon also took part in NME’s infamous career-spanning Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells? quiz, where he recalled spurning the opportunity to collaborate with Daft Punk, Kate Bush’s “horrified” reaction to a track he wrote for her, as well as sharing his thoughts on Frank Carter fronting a much-publicised reformation of the three other remaining Sex Pistols and why he finds Taylor Swift “incredibly dull” and said that he ‘doesn’t like Lady Gaga as a person’.
PiL will be embarking on a full UK and Ireland tour in May. Visit here for tickets and more information. The band have recently shared plans to release the “long lost” alternative US mix of ‘First Edition’ for Record Store Day 2025.
Lydon is also embarking on a live speaking I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right – Q&A Tour. For further information visit here