Clay Aiken has returned to music for the first time in 15 years: His new album, Christmas Bells Are Ringing, arrives Nov. 22. During that time, he ran for Congress twice. He was never elected, but that experience taught him that when it comes to the industry with the worst people, politics beats the music biz by a mile.
“I think that people in the music industry are not out to hurt someone else for their own success,” he tells ABC Audio. “I don’t have to tear Michael Bublé down in order to get people to buy my Christmas album. And politics is really only about that now. It’s not about promoting your own positive qualities. It’s simply about making the other person look horrible.”
Not only does Clay know about politics, he also knows our president-elect pretty well: He competed on season 5 of Donald Trump‘s reality show The Celebrity Apprentice and came in second. He describes why he thinks Trump now has motivation to form a broader coalition, but says he’s not sure Trump will act on it.
“I do believe that he wants people to like him,” Clay says. “I would bet everything I got that his real reason for not accepting the results of the 2020 election was because he doesn’t want to admit that he lost. And now, he never has to do that again. Right? He never has to lose again.”
“So if he were thoughtful, he would think, ‘You know what? I don’t have to satisfy the most undesirable parts of the people who supported me, because I don’t need them to vote for me again.'”
However, Clay notes, “That takes a lot of thoughtfulness.” He’s hopeful that Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump will “remind him” that he should focus on his legacy and not divide people.
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