Henry Rollins Says President Trump Is “Incredibly Inarticulate” And Doesn’t Grasp The Power Of The Presidency

Henry Rollins is once again saying the quiet part out loud. In a new conversation with Independent Americans With Paul Rieckhoff, the punk legend dug into why he believes President Donald Trump still doesn’t understand the magnitude of the office he holds, especially when it comes to global politics and U.S. military authority.

Rollins didn’t hold back, arguing that the presidency requires someone capable of serious strategic thinking. “I don’t think Donald Trump, I saw this early in his first administration, he didn’t understand the incredible power of the office,” he said, adding that the president oversees “the most lethal, well-equipped, technologically intense military force” in the world. He emphasised that the responsibility of sending people into harm’s way demands deep consultation, something he believes Trump “doesn’t get.”

Rollins went further, saying Trump appears to enjoy having power without understanding its consequences. “[Trump] digs his power, it seems to me, but he doesn’t understand that when he says something, he can affect the stock market. He can change the course of rivers,” Rollins said. He contrasted Trump with past presidents who had encyclopedic knowledge of foreign policy, calling the current president “incredibly inarticulate” and prone to broad generalisations about issues that require precision.

Rollins has a long history of critiquing Trump. In 2015, he called him “a bored rich guy” and predicted he’d be a “disastrous president.” Yet he has also argued that Trump’s presidency could accelerate the collapse of old guard bigotry, pointing to younger generations rejecting the prejudices of prior eras. “I think what Trump and these guys don’t realize, is that they are hastening their demise,” he said in a 2019 Daily Beast interview.

Rollins has never been just a former Black Flag frontman, he’s a writer, actor, spoken word performer, and cultural commentator who’s spent decades dissecting American politics, and in 2025, he’s still delivering criticism with the same blunt force that shaped his entire career.

Article credit: Blabbermouth