Conor Oberst Says He’s Finding It “Almost Impossible” To Write About Trump Era

Conor Oberst is finding it “almost impossible” to bring out his early 2000s protest songwriter voice in the Trump era, the singer-songwriter said during a recent talk. In an interview with the New York Times’ “Popcast” posted Thursday, the singer-songwriter was asked how his attitude towards folk and protest songs differs under President Donald Trump than under the last Republican U.S. executive George W. Bush. Find Bright Eyes Tickets Here “It’s really hard for me to even articulate the Trump era,” Oberst said, adding maybe at some point he’ll be able to express his thoughts on the current president in song, but, thus far, how “absurd” our political environment is makes it difficult to write about. “You can’t satirize, or whatever, what’s already like a parody” or a “disgusting, gross cartoon,” Oberst explained. In the 2000s, Oberst vocally tackled social issues in his music and onstage, routinely incising Bush’s policies and the war in Iraq. The song “When the President Talks to God” by Oberst fronted Bright Eyes was an exemplar of that moment, and Oberst’s performance of the polemic on late night television was seen as a moment defining opposition to the presidential administrat...