Serj Tankian has offered a rare, if carefully hedged, read on the political divide that has run through System Of A Down for years, suggesting that his bandmate and brother-in-law, drummer John Dolmayan, may have cooled on U.S. President Donald Trump, while stressing that he can’t speak for him.
The comments came in a recently published interview with Rolling Stone Italy. For much of the band’s recent history, the sharpest internal tension has been the ideological gulf between the two men: Tankian, the group’s frontman, has long been outspoken in his progressive activism, a stance closely associated with the band’s message, while Dolmayan publicly backed Trump during his first term, a position that stirred debate among fans and, at times, friction between the two. The pair, who are also brothers-in-law, have nonetheless kept both their friendship and the band intact throughout.
Dolmayan has never been shy about his views or the cost of holding them. In 2023, he said his Trump support had cost him “hundreds of thousands of fans,” but insisted it wouldn’t push him off his principles. In 2025, he voiced his gratitude over Trump‘s return to the White House, and earlier this year he again shared right-leaning political opinions.
Against that backdrop, Tankian‘s latest remarks hint at a possible shift, though he was quick to qualify them.
Discussing the band being held up as an example of a group that can set aside political differences, he said: “First of all, I don’t want to speak for John about his political views; that wouldn’t be fair. I can say that the verb ‘was’ [a Trump supporter] is correct. I can’t say for sure that it still is. I think he, too, got tired of Trump, like many others. Do differences make things more difficult? Of course. But there are also many points on which we agree. And John isn’t just my drummer, he’s also my brother-in-law. So it’s even more complicated. Our children are together all the time. They’re cousins. We see each other at family gatherings. That part is complicated.”
It’s worth noting that Dolmayan has not publicly responded to the remarks, and Tankian‘s words read as his own impression rather than any confirmation that his bandmate has formally distanced himself from the president or changed his politics.
For Tankian, what ultimately holds the two together outweighs where they diverge: “But I’m certainly not the only person in the world who has a brother-in-law with different political views. It happens to a lot of people. Yet that doesn’t stop us from doing what we truly do: loving each other. We share so many things: our origins, our Armenian identity, our culture, our music, and everything we’ve built together over thirty years. And that carries a lot of weight. Yes, it’s difficult at times. But times change. Opinions change.”
He went on to argue that political allegiances are rarely fixed, offering a few observations to make his point: “I’ll tell you one thing: before Trump, John voted for Barack Obama. I don’t even know if he says it publicly, but it’s true. People change. I know so many Armenians in Los Angeles who voted for Trump and now regret it. That’s all I can say. In fact, I’ll add something else. If you look at how much the United States has invested in education from 1980, when Reagan became president, until 2026, that explains everything.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Tankian remained unapologetic about his own willingness to speak out.
Asked about the divisiveness of artists voicing their politics in an increasingly hostile climate, he said: “Artists are people. Plumbers are people. Electricians are people. Journalists are people. Politicians are people. Everyone should be able to speak the moral truth. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do. Your job shouldn’t determine what you can or can’t say.”
He also reflected on his broader outlook when asked whether he leans optimist or pessimist about the state of the world: “I’m an optimist by nature. I always wake up in a good mood. There are people who wake up angry, even in my family. I, on the other hand, wake up happy; I’m optimistic. That said, the geopolitical reality, the environmental devastation, and everything else that’s happening in the world… The fact that we’re about to exceed the threshold of one and a half degrees of human-caused global warming… We are the only species that knowingly contributes to the destruction of our environment. Ecocide. Suicide. A disaster.”
He continued: “When I think about these things, I feel bad for my children, who are still young. So yes, I remain optimistic, but until we see a radical change in our political system and our way of life—and perhaps it will even take a destructive event to bring that about—we won’t be going in the right direction.”
Earlier in 2025, John Dolmayan spoke with Lilian Tahmasian about deeper problems in the band regarding Tankian.
While recognizing “justice” as a core theme, the band didn’t want political commentary to overshadow other elements of System Of A Down, noting Tankian‘s tendency to focus on it live.
He said at the time: “We had problems with that because Serj is very outspoken. He has one way of thinking, some things we agree with — the rest of the band — and some things we don’t. Some things we’re exactly on par with. With Serj — we don’t want that to be the only thing because we don’t feel like that’s the only element of System Of A Down. It’s a big part of the band.”
“Justice is a big part of the band. Justice has no politics. It’s either just or unjust. It has no political affiliation. It either is or it isn’t. But there’s a lot of things that come into play, like morality, so we just didn’t want it to be the only focal point, and that was… Serj spent a lot of time talking about political stuff on stage,” he continued.
Dolmayan was clear: he values Tankian‘s strong feelings, even if they don’t always align. His point is that System Of A Down‘s music delves into more than just political issues: “Now, I personally love it. The more crazy he got and into it…I believe anything that’s passionately displayed is worth listening to, even if I completely disagree with it. If you’re really passionate about it, I want to know what you think. So I like that part of it, but the rest of the band and I too felt like it was just too much of our focus.”
“We don’t just sing about politics. We sing about love, death, hate, stupid things, inane things, artistic things, insane things. It’s all these things that make System of a Down so unique. We didn’t want the focal point to be politics, but that’s what Serj wanted to talk about at the time. We’re in a weird situation where I don’t want to limit what he has to say, but I don’t want to limit what people think of me either,” he concluded.
