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Green Day takes on Trump with ‘Troubled Times’

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L-R: members of the US band Green Day Tre Cool, Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Durnt in 2016 (AFP Photo/JOHN THYS )

Punk rockers Green Day renewed their attack Monday on President-elect Donald Trump, warning of dangers ahead for the world in a video that celebrates Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy.

The video for the song “Troubled Times,” released on the US holiday for the slain civil rights leader’s birthday, begins with footage of historic marches for equality.

It then cuts to recent protests against Trump’s proposals to ban Muslim visitors and build a wall on the Mexican border.

Filmed by Spanish director Manu Viqueira largely in black-and-white with splashes of red, the video also features a dancing Trump — in a suit but with his face represented by billowing smoke underneath a “Make America Great Again” cap.

The video ends with the mushroom cloud of a nuclear bomb.

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“Troubled Times,” which appears on Green Day’s latest album “Revolution Radio,” reflects lyrically on the state of the world with the opening line: “What good is love and peace on Earth / When it’s exclusive?”

The Northern California band, which led a punk rock revival in the early 1990s, has been outspoken in its criticism of Trump, who is set to take office Friday.

Shortly after the November election, Green Day performed on the American Music Awards and inserted a chant — “No Trump! No KKK! No Fascist USA!” — to the apparent surprise of the broadcaster.

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Trump has a poor relationship with the entertainment world, which is mostly boycotting his inauguration.

Back in 2010, Trump wrote on Twitter that he saw Green Day’s Broadway musical “American Idiot” with his wife Melania and found it “excellent.”

Green Day was formed in 1986 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong and bassist Mike Dirnt.

For much of the group’s career, the band has been a trio with drummer Tré Cool, who replaced former drummer John Kiffmeyer in 1990 prior to the recording of the band’s second studio album, Kerplunk (1991).

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Guitarist Jason White, who has worked with the band as a touring member since 1999, was an official member from 2012 to 2016.

AFP/YAHOO

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