Bruce Springsteen Fears Donald Trump's 'Competence' As President
By Annie Reuter
(RADIO.COM) – Bruce Springsteen is not gun-shy when it comes to discussing President-elect Donald Trump. In an interview on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, the singer discussed his fear of a Trump presidency.
"I've felt disgust before, but never the kind of fear that you feel now," he said. "It's as simple as the fear of is someone simply competent enough to do this particular job? Forget about where they are ideologically. Do they simply have the pure competence to be put in the position of such responsibility?"
Springsteen adds that his main concern over Trump's presidency is that the "worst aspects that he appealed to comes to fruition."
"When you let that genie out of the bottle—bigotry, racism, intolerance—they don't go back in the bottle that easily if they go back in at all," Springsteen said. "Whether it's a rise in hate crimes, people feeling they have license to speak and behave in ways that previously were considered un-American and are un-American. That's what he's appealing to. My fears are that those things find a place in ordinary, civil society and the country changes in a way that is unrecognizable, and we become estranged. You say, 'Hey, well, wait a minute, you voted for Trump? I thought I knew who you were …' You feel very estranged from your country."
Despite these fears, Springsteen still believes in the common man and that "America is still America."
"I still believe in its ideals, and I'm going to do my best to play my very, very small part in maintaining those things," he said.
©2017 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All rights reserved.