Neil Young has hit out at Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk in a new video.
Titled ‘As Time Explodes’, the two-minute long clip was shared by the folk music icon on his YouTube channel last night (Thursday October 30).
In the footage, a variety of news clips are pieced together as a critique of both the Trump administration and the increasing power granted to tech billionaires. No lyrics are featured, and the instrumental track that plays over the top is a guitar-driven nod to his song ‘Be The Rain’, which he released with Crazy Horse in 2003.
‘As Time Explodes’ begins by showing media coverage of the demolition of the White House’s East Wing during the government shutdown. It then goes on to show a banner that reads “The 1% ruins the world”, before embedding a compilation of some of the highest profile billionaires in the world.
Elon Musk is seen wielding a chainsaw, Trump is seen accepting a luxurious jet from Qatar, and Apple CEO Tim Cook is seen going to the White House. There is also a nod made to the extortionate cost behind Jeff Bezos’ wedding, which was held in Venice over the summer.
Another clip in the video shows a tweet that reads “The oligarchs gather & so starts the looting of America”, and more footage shows the National Guard being deployed to the ICE Protests across the US.
There is footage towards the end that shows the huge crowds that gathered for the ‘No Kings Protests’ across America over the past few weeks too, and it is pieced together in a way that shows Young’s support for the demonstrations.
This is far from the first time that the ‘Harvest Moon’ songwriter has used his platform to make a political stand. In January 2022, he announced that he was removing his music from Spotify after episodes of Joe Rogan’s controversial podcast spread misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines (at the time, Joe Rogan’s podcast was signed exclusively to Spotify).
Earlier this month, he confirmed that he will be removing his discography from Amazon Music, and urged his fans to boycott corporations like Amazon, Meta, and Whole Foods.
The singer-songwriter also deactivated his Facebook and Instagram accounts over Meta’s reported “unconscionable use of chatbots with children” earlier this year, and in 2023 he quit X/Twitter after Elon Musk appeared to endorse an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
On his website, Young wrote: “We are stopping all use of X we can control. For reasons that should be obvious to the richest man on Earth, we are taking this action against his company.”
Young has been a strong vocal opponent of Donald Trump for a long time too, and even joined Joan Baez, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, where he performed songs live in opposition to the president.
More recently, he shared a song criticising Trump called ‘Big Crime’, where he hit out at the Republican party leader, and he also told his fans earlier this year that Trump was “out of control” and “we need a real president”.
Other protest songs of his that reflect the message put forward in the new ‘As Time Explodes’ video include ‘Let’s Roll Again’, which sees him sing “If You’re A Fascist, Get A Tesla” – a jab at Elon Musk and the billionaire class.
Young also previously expressed concern that he would not be allowed to play his current US tour due to his comments about the president, whom he noted had been a fan of his music “for decades”.