In 2013, he corresponded with imprisoned Russian activist and Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. In 2016, during a conversation with Gary Younge at a Guardian Live event"," Žižek discussed Donald Trump running for the US presidency in the 2016 election. He described Trump as a paradox, basically a centrist liberal in most of his positions, desperately trying to mask this by dirty jokes and stupidities. In an opinion piece, published e.g. in "Die Zeit", he described the then frontrunner candidate Hillary Clinton as the much less suitable alternative. In an interview with the BBC, Žižek did however state that he thought Trump was "horrible" and his support would have been based on an attempt to encourage the Democratic Party to return to more leftist ideals.