Celebrated actress Meryl Streep delivered a powerful speech criticizing Donald Trump at the 2017 Golden Globes on Sunday night, but the president-elect isn’t taking it lying down.
In an early-morning interview with The New York Times, Trump dismissed Streep as “a Hillary lover.” And it didn’t take long for the president-elect to air his views over Twitter, too.
While accepting her Cecil B. DeMille Award, the actress slammed Trump’s use of bullying and indecent rhetoric throughout his presidential campaign, though she did not call out the president-elect by name. Stating that “disrespect invites disrespect” and “violence incites violence,” the actress made a plea for empathy, specifically in light of a 2015 incident in which Trump made a contorted motion with his arms widely interpreted to be him mocking a disabled journalist.
Calling her “one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood,” Trump suggested Streep’s moral argument stemmed from watching her candidate lose the 2016 election. He also claimed that he never mocked a disabled journalist but “simply showed him ‘groveling.’”
This is not the only time Trump has defended himself against the allegations of heartless mockery. On several occasions, the former reality TV star has claimed that his compliance with wheelchair accessibility laws in his buildings is proof that he would not make fun of anyone with a disability.
It’s also not the only time Trump has been accused of lacking empathy. As a candidate for president, he notably made comments suggesting weakness on the part of military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
At the Globes and on social media, Streep’s speech was met with applause and words of praise (although not by certain conservative commenters). Similarly, Bernice A. King, daughter of civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., thanked the actress for using her platform to champion “dignity and discipline.”
But we couldn’t expect her to get away without a tweet from Trump himself.