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Paul McCartney uses song on new album to attack Donald Trump: ‘We’ve got a mad captain sailing this boat’

'Despite repeated warnings of dangers up ahead, the captain won’t be listening to what’s been said,' says Beatles star

Maya Oppenheim
Sunday 16 September 2018 19:24 BST
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Sir Paul McCartney revealed the criticism was included in lyrics to a song on his new album
Sir Paul McCartney revealed the criticism was included in lyrics to a song on his new album (PA)

Sir Paul McCartney has revealed he lambasted Donald Trump in his new solo album – branding the US president a "mad captain" in one of the songs.

The Beatles star said he had climate change deniers such as Mr Trump in his mind when penning a song called “Despite Repeated Warnings” on Egypt Station, his 18th solo album which was released earlier this month.

The track contains lyrics such as “despite repeated warnings of dangers up ahead, the captain won’t be listening to what’s been said”, and “those who shout the loudest, may not always be the smartest".

Sir Paul revealed the thinking behind his song during an interview with the BBC on Thursday.

The 76-year-old said he made the track to “basically say, 'occasionally, we’ve got a mad captain sailing this boat we’re all on and he is just going to take us to the iceberg [despite] being warned it's not a cool idea’.”

When pressed about who he was thinking of when he dreamt up the words “mad captain”, Sir Paul said: “Well I mean, obviously it’s Trump.”

He added: “But I don’t get too involved because there’s plenty of them about. He’s not the only one.”

Mr Trump once said climate change was a “hoax...invented by the Chinese” and showed a misunderstanding of climate trends in an interview with Piers Morgan in January.

The president, who has been branded a “climate wrecker” and a “climate vandal” by green groups, has withdrawn the US from the Paris climate agreement.

The current US administration has spurned efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and slashed funding for climate science – with the president pledging to resuscitate the coal industry and expand oil and gas drilling.

During a period of cold weather back in December, Mr Trump tweeted “perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming".

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