Lana Del Rey has defended herself against criticism after her recent comments about Donald Trump's presidency and the Capitol riots drew backlash.
During an interview with BBC Radio 1 on Tuesday, Lana caused controversy by saying that Trump's presidency "needed to happen," and that she believed the president was unaware that he incited violence in last Wednesday's riots.
"The madness of Trump, as bad as it was, it really needed to happen," she said. "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," she continued. "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."
Lana went on to turn her attention to last week's Capitol riots, which resulted in the deaths of five people, and said she doesn't believe Trump knew his comments at a rally earlier that day would incite the violence.
"We finally have to address this big issue in the world of, what do we do with people who don't know they're hurting other people — like Trump," Lana said. "He doesn't know that he's inciting a riot, and I believe that. He's got delusions of grandeur. I think he's unwell."
And Lana added that she believes the riots themselves were a product of "disassociated rage".
Her comments drew immediate backlash from people suggesting she was defending Trump and his supporters.
@LanaDelRey i cant even defend this. a privileged rich white woman saying the atrocity of Trump’s presidency needed to happen and that capitalism isn’t the root of our problems. just apologize and stop defending the crappy things you say
a facist was in office and it affected not only minorities in america but people in other countries as well. "as bad as it was..." is an understatement. your ignorance, privilege, and inability to read the room is outstanding. have you always been this tone deaf? @LanaDelRey
Lana stans gonna be doing some mental gymnastics to explain this one
And as criticism mounted, Lana came online to defend her comments which she insisted were coming from a "liberal" position and had been "taken out of context".
"Just to take a moment to say that what I was describing with the BBC was that Trump is so significantly impaired that he may not know what he was doing due to his significant lack of empathy and the wider ranging problem is the issue of sociopathy and narcissism in America," she explained.
Just to take a moment to say that what I was describing w the bbc was that Trump is so significantly impaired that he may not know what he was doing due to his significant lack of empathy and the wider ranging problem is the issue of sociopathy and narcissism in America.
"I'll say it again — I don't appreciate the larger magazines taking my well-intentioned and believe it or not liberal comments out of context," she went on. "It's actually what I sing about quite often. It's what I've been condemned for saying. You can listen to the entire interview."
Lana also directed a response at Complex magazine, who published their piece on her comments alongside this tweet.
Lana Del Rey is back at it with another controversial take: she says Trump didn't mean to incite the Capitol Building riot: https://t.co/bOCUfTzl0b
"I also want to say that I don’t appreciate complex magazine inferring that I thought it was right to storm the capital [sic]," she continued. "After my long term relationship with them and exclusive interviews over the last 11 years I think it’s pathetic. If Rolling Stone chimes in — same goes for them."
Lana also responded to Complex's tweet directly, telling the outlet: "Thanks for the cool soundbite taken out of context, I said that the bigger problem is Sociopathy — so whether he meant to incite a riot is less important than the larger issue in America at hand — the problem of sociopathy."
"It’s fucked up," she went on. "You know I’m real. You know I voted for Biden. I’m super steady in everything I’ve ever said. You probably listened to my entire interview. So whoever wrote this is a genuine piece of shit. I am the one helping bringing the problem with narcissism to light. Gfys."