UPDATED: Donald Trump blasted Hollywood as “racist” outside the White House on Friday morning, adding that the industry is doing a “disservice” to the country.
His remarks come amid controversy over “The Hunt,” the Blumhouse film about elite vacationers hunting down blue-collar whites for sport. The film has generated backlash on Fox News and other conservative outlets. Universal has suspended marketing for the film — due out on Sept. 27 — in the wake of the El Paso and Dayton shootings.
Trump followed up on Twitter in the afternoon, appearing to refer more overtly to the controversy over “The Hunt.”
“Liberal Hollywood is Racist at the highest level, and with great Anger and Hate! They like to call themselves ‘Elite,’ but they are not Elite. In fact, it is often the people that they so strongly oppose that are actually the Elite. The movie coming out is made in order…. to inflame and cause chaos. They create their own violence, and then try to blame others. They are the true Racists, and are very bad for our Country!”
On Friday morning, Trump spoke for about a half hour outside the White House, before leaving for the Hamptons. His comments on Hollywood were prompted by a question about Twitter, which many on the right believe discriminates against conservative viewpoints.
“We’re going to be very tough with them. They’re treating conservatives very unfairly,” Trump began, before veering into a diatribe against the film industry.
“Hollywood — I don’t call them the elites, I think the elites are the people they go after in many cases. But Hollywood is really terrible,” he said. “You talk about racist — Hollywood is racist. 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.”
Trump did not cite “The Hunt” by name, but he typically uses the term “racist” to refer to perceived attacks on white people. Over the years, he has leveled allegations of racism against Spike Lee and Tavis Smiley, and once questioned why ABC was allowed to air “Black-ish,” calling it “racism at the highest level.”
Following his remarks about Hollywood, Trump appeared to return to the subject of alleged censorship of conservatives on tech platforms.
“They treat conservatives — Republicans — totally different than they treat others, and they can’t do that,” he said.
Trump has been under fire for his own comments in the wake of the El Paso shooting on Saturday. The shooter issued a manifesto saying he was acting in response to the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” That came weeks after Trump took heat for telling not-white Democratic congresswomen to “go back” to their home country.
Trump has bristled at accusations of racism while casting the accusation on others, particularly non-white members of Congress. In a July 28 tweet, he called Rep. Elijah Cummings — the African-American chairman of the House Oversight Committee — “racist.” He also called the “Squad” — Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib — a “racist group of troublemakers.”