Moby clearly isn’t afraid to go for broke in his latest music video, which, among other things, depicts President Donald Trump as an evil capitalist, Nazi robot.
The video for “In This Cold Place,” which premiered over on HuffPost, features many dystopian images, calling upon familiar iconography such as children’s cartoons to make the audience uncomfortable.
The Trump robot — who at one point transforms into a swastika money symbol — is a relatively minor aspect of the video. However, many beliefs he peddles make an appearance, such as his promise to build a border wall.
He’s not the only President to show up either. Former President Richard Nixon at one point is shown making a speech when his nose grows so long it circles the globe.
Other familiar characters show up, such as the Care Bears, He-Man, Mario and more. In each instance, the versions of the characters we know are turned on their heads, their idyllic lives ruined by political issues such as immigration or social issues such as greed and misogyny.
In the end, it seemingly doesn’t matter. While resistance groups overthrow each of the villains, the protagonist — a boy in superhero pajamas who grows up distraught and eventually homeless — is still watching the TV in a burning building.
Moby worked with animator Steve Cutts to produce the video. The two previously worked together on Moby’s “Are You Lost In The World Like Me?” According to Moby, Cutts was hesitant to depict some of the images, which were based on the musician’s notes.
‘Oh, do you think we can get away with this?’” Moby recalled. “And I was like, yeah, why not, just make it, go as far you want.”
Moby isn’t worried about stirring up legal action and controversy, similar to the events surrounding Kathy Griffin’s now infamous decapitated Trump head photo or the Shakespeare in the Park production of “Julius Caesar,” which depicted the assassinated emperor as a Trump-like entity.
He’s really only worried about his video getting removed from the internet.
“The criteria that you would use to determine where you draw the line is simply what’s effective and what’s legal,” said Moby. “And I don’t mean legal in a cowardly way. I mean legal in a way that would lead something to be taken off the internet. Because you can make the best content in the world but if YouTube and Facebook won’t let people see it, then what’s the point of having this great content.”
“As time has passed, I’ve wanted more and more for my work to somehow reflect my political concerns and my world views and issues that are important to me,” said Moby. “I’ve realized that music videos are just a really good way of trying to do that.”
You can watch the full video above.