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Meryl Streep slams Trump; he tweets right back at her

Commentary: After a Golden Globes speech in which she criticized the mocking of a disabled reporter, Streep becomes the latest object of Trump's ire.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

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Meryll Streep shows off her Cecile B. DeMille Award, which is given each year by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for "outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment."

Venturelli, WireImage

As America went to bed Sunday night, it had a question on its mind.

Will it be 5:30 a.m.? Or 5:45? Will he sleep in and wait till 6? It will surely not be past 7, will it? (Eastern time, that is.)

It turned out to be 5:27 a.m. ET when Donald Trump took to his phone, armed his Twitter account and let fly at Meryl Streep.

The actress had used her Cecil B. DeMille Award acceptance speech at Sunday night's Golden Globe Awards to address the president-elect.

She spoke of a 2016 performance that had "stunned" her. No, it wasn't from a "Star Wars" movie.

"It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter. Someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back. 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."

She was referring to the president-elect apparently mocking New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski.

Streep spoke of "this instinct to humiliate" giving "permission for other people to do the same thing."

It was almost inevitable that Trump would respond on Twitter. This is his preferred method of rebuttal when someone, anyone criticizes him.

So on Monday morning, Trump emitted a series of tweets that read in total: "Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a Hillary flunky who lost big. For the 100th time, I never 'mocked' a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him 'groveling' when he totally changed a 16 year old story that he had written in order to make me look bad. Just more very dishonest media!"

There are those who believe that Trump himself is very dishonest in respect to his treatment of Kovaleski.

It seems impossible, though, for the president-elect to let even the slightest slight go. Worse, it's always personal.

In evening hazes, I find myself occasionally wanting to advise Trump on his tweeting. Streep did leave herself wide open to scorn with these words: "Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. And if we kick them all out you'll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts."

If Trump had subtly responded to this nakedly condescending dismissal of entertainment that many Americans enjoy, he might have shown himself to be what he claims: a defender of the people.

Instead, it was back to the Twitter playground.