THE BEAST

SCORPIONS singer Klaus Meine has slammed Donald Trump's plan to build "a great wall" along the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that the current U.S. president's immigration policy is "like the clock ticking backwards."

"It's hard to understand sometimes," Meine told Billboard about the global political situation. "It's all kind of crazy — Brexit with the U.K. and with the U.S.A., and when you see all the news over here coming from America between America and North Korea. It's frightening. It's really scary. We just toured America, and you can feel there are a lot of people who have question marks about the future, 'Where do we go from here?' It seems it's unpredictable."

As a German native and German citizen, Meine said that the history of the Berlin Wall is a good way to illustrate the power and meaning of walls.

"America seemed to be our closest ally all our lives, our friends, and now nobody knows," he explains. "I mean, it's almost 30 years ago the Berlin Wall came down, and there's somebody in the White House now talking about putting new walls up. It's hard to understand. When the Berlin Wall came down, we thought we were all moving closer together and it was more about one world, a united Europe and the United States working together, coming together, building bridges. With music we always try to build bridges. But now, it seems like so much of that is falling apart. I never thought in my lifetime I would see that. It's like the clock ticking backwards.

"I think as Germans we owe America so much, so they will always be close to our hearts. No question about it. But it's hard to see how this president is acting. I just hope this change will come again when we are one world on the same side."

Days after being sworn in, Trump issued an executive order to build a wall on the southern border. His vow to make Mexico pay for the estimated $20 billion wall has stirred resentment there, where the country's leader has repeatedly said there will be no such payment.

A cornerstone of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, the wall's effectiveness has been questioned by many, with some describing it as "limited at best " and "impractical at worst." Immigration advocacy groups argue it would not stem illegal border crossings.

SCORPIONS are currently promoting "Born To Touch Your Feelings - Best Of Rock Ballads", an essential anthology of the band's new and classic recordings, which was released on November 24 via Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. Via Blabbermouth