With the recent domestic terrorism incident in El Paso, resulting in the death of 22 people and injuring two dozen more, there has been a lot of talk about racism in the United States. Thanks to the killer’s supposed manifesto, the idea that white supremacy is running rampant has been a topic of discussion all week, with many pointing fingers at America’s highest office, the Presidency as one of the largest causes of the problem. Well, President Trump obviously disagrees and is pointing a finger back at a group of people he thinks are the real racists — Hollywood.
Speaking today at the White House in front of a group of reports (via ABC News), the President took on Hollywood head-on, saying that the films that are being released today are “very dangerous” and the folks are “racist.”
“Hollywood is really terrible. You talk about ‘racist.’ Hollywood is racist,” he said. “What they’re doing, with the kind of movies they’re putting out, it’s actually very dangerous for our country. What Hollywood is doing is a tremendous disservice to our country.”
He continued, “We have now all of the heads of the biggest companies coming in, and we’re gonna talk to them. They treat conservatives, Republicans, totally different than they treat others. And they can’t do that.”
Of course, Trump doesn’t mention any films by name or any Hollywood studios or execs. So, we can’t really discuss anything in particular. By saying “the kind of movies they’re putting out,” it would appear that the President is referencing the diverse, inclusive films that are becoming more and more prevalent. Is he talking about “Black Panther” as dangerous? Perhaps, he’s worried that films focusing on LGBTQ folks are a “tremendous disservice to our country?”
This isn’t the first time that Trump has spoken out about the film industry. During this year’s post-Oscars discussion, the President specifically called out Spike Lee for being “racist” for the speech the filmmaker made after winning his Academy Award.
Also, if we go back to 2013, there’s a now-infamous tweet where Trump called Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” the “most racist movie I have ever seen.” Again, he didn’t explain his critique, but one could perhaps deduce that he’s unhappy with the film’s treatment of white characters?
Hopefully, next time Trump calls out Hollywood for its “racist” views, he would be kind enough to name some names because it’s hard to deduce what he’s speaking about.
Django Unchained is the most racist movie I have ever seen, it sucked!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2013
