Slayer’s Tom Araya calls America “a nation of crybabies” following Trump Instagram controversy

“They can’t even joke. They can’t even laugh at themselves. They can’t even have fun.”

Slayer frontman Tom Araya has called America “a nation of crybabies” following the negative reaction to an Instagram post he shared in January that featured the band with a Photoshopped image of Donald Trump.

Araya had kicked up a shitstorm for mocking fans for their dislike of the post, describing Trump’s critics as “snowflakes”, while adding: “Like him or not he is the president.”

Slayer later distanced themselves from the image, stating: “it’s not something the band would have posted if asked, and does not belong on a Slayer social page.”

Believe it or not this picture was posted by me Tom Araya on 1/20 cause I thought it was funny … I was amazed at the comments about the picture some positive some negative more amazing was in 2 hours there was 10,000 likes … But i never would have guessed that there where so many snowflakes commenting their distaste for the new president. Like him or not he is the president … woke up the next morning and found someone had deleted the post … can some one please explain why…?

A post shared by Slayer (@slayerbandofficial) on Jan 24, 2017 at 12:54pm PST

Now in a new interview with Chilean radio station Futuro, Araya says he was “taken aback by the response” to the photo and that he “didn’t realize that [it] was gonna piss so many Slayer fans off.”

Araya doubled down on his criticism, saying: “That’s what America has become. It’s become a bunch of people that, because they didn’t get their way, they’re mad. I shared a picture that I thought was funny. They can’t even joke. They can’t even laugh at themselves. They can’t even have fun. And that just is amazing that it’s come to that. We’re a nation of crybabies.”

He also revealed how he ended up with the photo, explaining that it was sent to his wife initially. “She showed it to me. I laughed. I thought it was funny. And I thought it was funny because of all the rhetoric that Donald Trump is getting and how everybody hates him. And I decided to post the picture.

“I knew that some people wouldn’t like it. You have to do that, though, you know what I mean? I’m in Slayer, and being in Slayer, sometimes you do stuff like that just to piss people off.”

Araya clarified that he didn’t vote for Trump (or Clinton) in the election, declaring: “Those are two people that are the furthest from what I would ever vote for.” [via Blabbermouth]