February 24, 2015
In Blog News
Like a number of conservatives, Donald Trump did not appreciate the outcome of the 87th Academy Awards. Sunday night’s Oscars telecast ended with a big best picture win for “Birdman” and director Alejandro Iñárritu, who beat out “American Sniper” much to the chagrin of Fox News and the entire #tcot universe. Trump on Monday expressed his own disdain for Iñárritu’s win, using the victory as an opportunity to say xenophobic (and unsurprising) things about immigration on “Fox & Friends.”
“It was a great night for Mexico, as usual,” Trump said. “This guy [Iñárritu] kept getting up and up and up. I said, ‘What is he doing? He’s walking away with all the gold.’ Was it that good? I don’t hear that. But it was certainly a big night for them.”
Host Elisabeth Hasselbeck seemed to agree, setting up a series of clips of “lefty” political commentary with the assertion that “American Sniper” was “snubbed” in two categories. The combination of a right-wing commercial film losing the best picture award to a film with a Mexican director resulted in plenty of racist and Islamophobic ugliness on Twitter. Trump was joined, prominently, by writer Bret Easton Ellis in completely missing the point:
The Academy snubs diversity? A Mexican deservedly wins Picture, Director and Screenplay. Is anyone still bitching? pic.twitter.com/6QwCS9VZ4m
— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) February 23, 2015
Jenny Kutner is an assistant editor at Salon, focusing on sex, gender and feminism. Follow @jennykutner or email jkutner@salon.com.