--- title: Watch Johnny Rotten Defends Trump interview VIDEO description: The Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten (otherwise known as John Lydon) is defending Donald Trump and is even open to being friends with him. canonical: https://time.com/4714146/sex-pistols-johnny-rotten-on-trump/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-27T18:36:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:17.938Z og:title: 'He Terrifies Politicians' Johnny Rotten Defends Trump og:description: "He terrifies politicians and this is a joy to behold to me" og:url: https://time.com/4714146/sex-pistols-johnny-rotten-on-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'He Terrifies Politicians' Johnny Rotten Defends Trump twitter:description: "He terrifies politicians and this is a joy to behold to me" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 'He Terrifies Politicians and This Is Joy to Behold.' Watch Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten Defend Trump  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Mar 27, 2017 6:36 PM UTC  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Mar 27, 2017 6:36 PM UTC While President Donald Trump has [his share of celebrity detractors](http://motto.time.com/4661009/chrissy-teigen-donald-trump-tweet/) in the past, [the Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten](http://business.time.com/2007/11/28/johnny%5Frotten%5Fanticommunist/) (otherwise known by his government name John Lydon) just defended the president and is even contemplating friendship with him. Lydon, [a punk pioneer](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919281,00.html) who memorably blasted Queen Elizabeth the British monarchy, calling it a “fascist regime” in the controversial song “God Save the Queen,” shared on _Good Morning Britain_ that while he finds Trump a “complicated fella” with whom he has “many, many problems with him as a human being,” he thinks the media has got him wrong. “What I dislike is the left-wing media in America are trying to smear the bloke as a racist, and that’s completely not true,” Lydon said. “There just might be a chance something good will come out of that situation, because he terrifies politicians and this is a joy to behold to me.” Lydon later revealed that a friendship with Trump wasn’t off the table either. “And dare I say, a possible friend? Think of the rows we can have.” Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4714146/sex-pistols-johnny-rotten-on-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4714146/sex-pistols-johnny-rotten-on-trump/"},"headline":"'He Terrifies Politicians and This Is Joy to Behold.' Watch Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten Defend Trump","datePublished":"2017-03-27T18:36:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:17.938Z","description":"\"He terrifies politicians and this is a joy to behold to me\"","url":"https://time.com/4714146/sex-pistols-johnny-rotten-on-trump/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","celebrities","Donald Trump","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4714146/sex-pistols-johnny-rotten-on-trump/","name":"'He Terrifies Politicians and This Is Joy to Behold.' Watch Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten Defend Trump"}}]}] ```