Ariel Pink, John Maus ripped by fans for attending Trump march

Lo-fi music fans were angered to learn that musician Ariel Pink (whose real name is Ariel Rosenberg) attended yesterday’s rally supporting President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, which culminated with a mob of Trump-supporters invading the Capitol.

According to Pitchfork, filmmaker Alex Lee Moyer shared a picture of Pink and fellow musician John Maus on her Instagram. It shows Maus, and Pink, posing on what appears to be a hotel bed. A video showed Pink at the protest. It’s unclear if Maus attended the protest or if he was just in the room for the photo. The caption, shared in a tweeted screenshot, says, “the day we almost died but instead had a great time.”

Pink has made his support for Trump known on more than one occasion, usually tweeting simply “vote for trump.” His latest tweet with that verbiage was in the early morning hours on Thursday. Maus has mostly stayed mum on the subject. He shared a link to a Vatican document from Pope Pius XI, which seems to address nationalism. He also responded to a fan who joked about Pink forcing him to do drugs and “read vatican sermons from nazi germany [sic],” with a photo of German-Jewish philosopher Edith Stein, who later converted to Catholicism and was recognized as a saint.

People on Twitter criticized both musicians for their attendance. One fan accused Pink of ripping off other artists and referred to him as a “creepy little fascist S**tbag from Beverly Hills.” Another jokingly shared a screengrab from The Simpsons that said, “I was only in there to get directions on how to get away from there.” Someone else called Maus a “cop kisser.”

Writer Larry Fitzmaurice also offered some insights into the conversation, sharing a 2014 interview he’d done with Pink for Pitchfork, where the singer referred to himself as “Rush Limbaugh Pink.” He called the situation “sad” given the musician’s talent, but he also criticized Pink for working with producer Kim Fowley, who was accused of sexual assault. He also shared a tweet he wrote in August 2020 asking which indie musician would be the first to buy into the bogus QAnon conspiracy theory, writing that his guess had been Pink. He also remarked that Maus would likely be difficult to get a real reading on how he feels about the situation, “because he’ll eventually release a 5,000 word statement that’s annoying to read and means close to nothing.”

Pink responded to a fan who was upset that he attended the rally, saying that he was not among those who stormed the Capitol. He wrote that he didn’t support violence. In one response, he implied that he disregarded the pandemic, saying those attending knew the risk they were taking and criticized Black Lives Matter protests, saying they also disregarded the pandemic. “[I] was in dc [sic] to peacefully show my support for the president. i [sic] attended the rally on the white house [sic] lawn and went back to hotel and took a nap. case closed,” he wrote in another tweet.

Newsweek reached out to Pink’s and Maus’ labels for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.