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Lana Del Rey Is Breaking up with the American Flag Because of Donald Trump

“I’m not going to have the American flag waving while I’m singing 'Born to Die.' It’s not going to happen.”

Between Lana Del Rey's press shots, her dalliances in professionally-filmed First Lady roleplay sessions, and her recurring, bombastic invocations of tried-but-true 'Murrican tropes, the singer practically bleeds red, white, and blue. And yet, ever since last year's presidential election, Del Rey can't help but look at her longtime muse—the American flag—a bit differently.

In a new interview with Pitchfork, the singer discussed the impact of Trump's presidency on her all-American oeuvre: In other words, you can kiss those dramatic, waving-flag tour visuals goodbye. "It's not going to happen," she said. "I'd rather have static. It's a transitional period, and I'm super aware of that. I think it would be inappropriate to be in France with an American flag. It would feel weird to me now—it didn't feel weird in 2013."

The apocalyptic uncertainty of post-election America helped inspire "When the World Was at War We Kept Dancing," one of the songs from her upcoming album Lust for Life, Del Rey went on to add:

"All the guys in the studio—we didn't know we were going to start walking in every day and talking about what was going on. We hadn't ever done that before, but everyday during the election, you'd wake up and some new horrible thing was happening. Korea, with missiles suddenly being pointed at the western coast. With "When the World Was at War We Kept Dancing," I was posing a real question to myself: Could this be the end of an era? The fall of Rome?"

At any rate, here's hoping that the world doesn't explode before Lust for Life hits shelves tomorrow (July 21). In the meantime, we might as well play Lana's freshly-unveiled pair of A$AP Rocky-featuring tracks on loop.

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