Clean Bandit and Ellie Goulding parody Donald Trump in their new “Mama” video, ruminating on how one destructive father-son relationship can negatively impact the whole planet.
The electro-pop band wrote and directed the intriguing clip, which examines a Trump-like character from childhood through a military stint to, eventually, a surprise presidential win. The band follows a trail of toxicity through several key episodes in the man’s life: Being laughed at in elementary school, his dad pushing him in a swimming pool and groping a mad, smiling as one soldier beats up another and—in what seems like a reference to Trump’s proposed border initiative—building a wall out of blocks.
As the election results pour in, the politician eats fast food in his bedroom and makes a panicked phone call to an advisor. During the song’s acoustic epilogue, the character slow-dances with his wife on a floor boasting the slogan “Damaging Our Children Can Damage the Entire World.” The band didn’t specify Trump by name in the clip or in an accompanying statement, noting they wrote the script “about a boy whose power was taken away from him as a child and he grew up determined to take that power back.”
“Mama” is the latest single from Clean Bandit’s second LP, 2018’s What Is Love? The album also features guest spots from Demi Lovato (“Solo”), Marina and Luis Fonsi (“Baby”), Rita Ora (“Nowhere”), Big Boi (“Out at Night”) and Julia Michaels (“I Miss You”), among others.