System Of A Down drummer John Dolmayan has claimed that companies won’t work with him because of his right-wing views.

The musician has previously expressed his support for Trump, backed an investigation into the results of the 2020 US election, and accused the Black Lives Matter movement of being “propaganda” for Democrats.

Now in an appearance on a podcast centred around people who have been “cancelled”, he said his political opinions have seen him lose support for his projects. “I’ve been a victim of it,” he told Cancelled With Rob Rosen And Desma Simon, going on to discuss his comic book series Ascensia.

“Let’s just say that Ascencia could easily be made into a TV show or movie and I had an agency working on that with me. And that agency [had] to take a step back.”

Dolmayan compared the treatment he said he had received with suspected communists being blacklisted in the US in the 1950s. “So, I’ve already been a victim of this, and it’s no different and no better than what happened in the ’50s with McCarthyism,” he said.

“I don’t believe in communism. I don’t believe in socialism – I believe in social programs. But I also wouldn’t condemn somebody, I wouldn’t put somebody in jail for their beliefs.”

He went on to criticise Black Lives Matter once again, saying he didn’t like the organisation and described many of the founders as “flat out communists”.

“I don’t think the Black Lives Matter movement – or organisation, not the movement – because I think a lot of people think differently than what the actual movement is about,” he explained. “I don’t think they give two shits about Black lives. I think they’re a democratic fundraising tool of a communist agenda. And if they really cared about Black lives, they would care about Black on Black violence in our inner cities.”

While Dolmayan has backed Trump in the past, earlier this month the drummer criticised the Washington D.C. rioters that the former president had encouraged.

“There are those who’s goal it is to create a civil war of thought in this country and the polarisation experienced in the last year has proven it,” he wrote on Instagram after people stormed the US Capitol. “Our country is in need of sensible debate and a greater understanding of opposing views.”