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Music

Todd Rundgren Debuted His New Anti-Trump, Anti-Fox News Single on Fox News

"Tin Foil Hat" is fun, but God has likely deserted us.

"Now we've all heard the slew of celebrities and musicians saying how much they hate President Trump and everything he stands for," Fox News host and Bill O'Reilly mentee Jesse Watters says, faking some eye-rolling exhaustion. "But one musician has taken it a step further." Watters reads from a statement that eclectic rock musician Todd Rudgren recently gave to Variety, one that tells Trump supporters not to turn up at his shows. In response to the statement, Watters introduces his guest in the most smug way he can: "I welcome all people to my show, including Mr Rundgren himself."

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What precisely the fuck is happening in the video below? We could have long conversations about Fox News' hypocrisy, the way that the network has intentionally misinformed and riled up a faction of America into a racist froth, the way that it has done perhaps irreparable damage to this country and the world; we could talk about institutional stupidity. We could even lament the hubris of trying to create a human from the skin of a lesser Backstreet Boy's left buttock and a Steve Bannon sperm sample and giving the thing its own TV show. But none of that will quite get at this bizarre scene. Todd Rundgren premiered his new anti-Trump, anti-Fox News single "Tin Foil Hat" on Fox News last night.

The interview is a shitshow. Rundgren explains the song's title, saying that Donald Trump was "an original conspiracy theorist—he didn't believe that Obama was born in this country and he formented that pretty much from the time the former president was elected." Watters says that Trump was just having a harmless joke when he insisted that America's first black president was a foreign-born imposter. The song itself is a fun jab at Fox and Trump, but there are so many layers of irony to it by the time that the interview concludes that all I can hear is a faint ringing in my ears.

Watch the interview and the full video below. If… you know… if you want to do that.

Alex Robert Ross's ears are still ringing. Follow him on Twitter.