In a wide-ranging interview on Ben Shapiro’s “Sunday Show,” comedian and podcaster Russell Brand defined himself as a populist and said he doesn’t understand how condemning people who supported Donald Trump is going to lead to real political solutions.
“I’m pretty populist in loads and loads of ways. In fact, I feel like I’m ultimately a populist,” Brand said when Shapiro asked him about his personal views. He then explained his belief that a significant reason Donald Trump was able to quickly build a political following as an outsider was because he addressed the needs of people elite Washington has overlooked in recent decades.
“When every single decision has to pass through the prism of powerful people’s interest and the revolving door between Washington and Wall Street, like, what real chance is there for ordinary people?” Brand asked. He then pointed out that a large percentage of Trump’s base was made up of groups who haven’t been the recipients of significant opportunity. “The wave that Trump rode to power, you know, that energy came from somewhere,” Brand said, “and it’s got to go somewhere. And like the constant condemnation of people that found hope in Donald Trump. I don’t see how that’s leading to the solution.”
Brand admitted that, for some reason, fans make the mistake of thinking he’s a Communist who advocates for a highly empowered centralized state. “This is not what I believe in at all,” he said. “I believe that all of us have a right — like, you know, Constitutional, Thomas Paine type territory — all of us have a right to pursue happiness and freedom … And I don’t think that can be possible if there’s too much centralized state power intervening in the lives of individuals.”
Brand, who has often been frank about his past struggles with drug addiction and alcoholism, also spoke about how his experiences have convinced him that the real answer to national division isn’t political, but spiritual.
“I’m not making claims to Job levels of suffering,” he said of his time as an A-list actor in Hollywood while he was using crack and heroin, “but to be introduced to God on that level, of knowing I am weak on my own, fueled just by my ego and my petty trivial desires, I discovered I will live a pretty trivial life. I need something powerful [to avoid returning to self-destruction].”
The star of “Get Him to the Greek” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” explained how that time in his life, confronted with his own tendency to be selfish and chase after consumerism, taught him that our national problems can’t be resolved within the limited framework of our current political discourse. “We need to invite meaning and purpose and God back into the conversation of how we construct society,” he argued.
“I want us in this time of division and fragmentation and fracture to find ways of coming together in peace, that’s why I’m chatting to Candace Owens and to you,” the 46-year-old concluded. “I don’t want to sit around chatting with people I agree with. I want to talk to people, where there are areas of concern and discontent and we find ways that we can harmonize.”