Meryl Streep stuck the knife in Donald Trump with a Golden Globes speech about his bullying tactics, (link corrected) particularly his mocking of a reporter with a disability, and it didn’t take Trump long to fire back.
The future president of the U.S. took to Twitter to call Streep “overrated” and a “Hillary flunky,” while also denying that he’d ever mocked the New York Times reporter, Serge Kovaleski, who has a condition that impairs arm movement. The video is above.
While anti-Trump comments at the Globes were relatively restrained, Ms. Streep, one of the most outspoken progressives in the film world, mounted a powerful critique of Mr. Trump’s abilities as a performer, complimenting in a backhanded way a style of showmanship that she all but called insidious.
“There was one performance this year that stunned me — it sank its hooks in my heart,” Ms. Streep said. “Not because it was good; there was nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh, and show their teeth.
“It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter,” she said, referring to a speech by Mr. Trump in 2015 when he shuddered and flailed his arms, seeming to mock a disabled reporter for The New York Times. “It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can’t get it out of my head, because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life.”
Trump’s forces immediately rose in his defense on social media with his take that this is more sour grapes from the liberal elite. Even some critics of Trump seemed to take the view that celebrities help Trump by criticizing him. In the short run, that’s probably right, given his brilliant campaign by Twitter in the election. Maybe the long run, too. But being silenced by his tactics indisputably means he wins.
Trump’s early morning Twitter storm follows. The future president apparently has no more important matters to deal with than soothing his ego by erupting over jokes and speeches at a TV awards ceremony. His fingers will be busy in months ahead.