Pop diva and left-wing political activist Barbara Streisand has a new song out and it should be a surprise to no one that she unapologetically bashes President Trump in it.
When Streisand set out to write her new political song, “Don’t Lie to Me,” she aimed to create something “very subtle” and instead let herself launch into a rant.
“I just went ballistic,” she told the AP on Wednesday. “I just can’t stand what’s going on. His assault on our democracy, our institutions, our founders — I think we’re in a fight. … We’re in a war for the soul of America.”
The lyrics of “Don’t Lie To Me” accuse President Trump of essentially not caring at all “when the world is burning.”
“How do you sleep when the world keeps turning?” she asks in the song. “All that we built has come undone/How do you sleep when the world is burning?/Everyone answers to someone.”
“Don’t Lie to Me” appears on her new album, “Walls,” her first project of mainly original tracks since 2005. It will be released November 2.
Streisand felt inspired to write the song “Don’t Lie To Me” when she was listening to the news, which “was making me sick, listening to lies, listening to things that are such craziness.”
“I wanted to talk about the things that were making me feel so sad, heartbroken,” she said. “I’m a kind of fierce American. I don’t know who we are anymore as a country. Are we embracing people who flee oppression? Or are we separating children from parents, putting them in cages? I don’t know if people care about the planet, the survival of the planet. Do they care about clean air? Clean water? Clean food? If they do, how could they vote for somebody like Trump, who believes it’s a hoax? I’m frightened for this country. And yet, I have hope.”
Streisand said she also dedicated her album to all the young people speaking out in protest.
“It’s important that people vote. It’s important that people believe in the power of their own voice and how much that changes things. It’s like the kids speaking out, the Parkland kids,” she said. “It’s easy to feel powerless now but we’re not if each of us speak up and get out and vote.”