Trump Has Something Deranged and Pathetic to Say About This Year's Oscars

Sunday night’s Oscars may have represented a small step toward inclusion in the film industry, but despite Jimmy Kimmel’s best efforts, the show was the lowest-rated ceremony in history, pulling in only 26.5 million viewers. (That’s less than half the audience of the highest-rated Academy Awards ceremony in 1998, where Titanic took home a record-tying 11 trophies.) And yes, our Tang-soaked Cabbage Patch Doll of a president had something to say about it.

Let’s put aside all the wonky stuff about fractured viewing patterns and how nothing rates as high as it used to. The Oscars were lackluster (come on, The Shape of Fish Dicks was always going to win), and none of the big nominees were astoundingly thrilling aside from Get Out and A Fantastic Woman. But it’s far too easy to read Trump’s bit about not having “Stars” anymore as him trying to apply #MAGA logic to Hollywood. The deeper problem is not that we don’t have “Stars” anymore, but that a lot of our stars look different than they used to and that bothers Trump. Anyway.

Now to the eye-twitching part of the tweet: “except your President (just kidding, of course)!” My god, these are the words of a deranged grandpa who feels neglected and wants you to feel bad about it but doesn’t want to say it so he pretends he’s joking. These are the words of someone who rubbed elbows with the stars (he attended the 2011 Oscars, where the above photo was taken) but was never invited to sit at the cool kids table. This is basically if Tommy Wiseau was our president: equally vainglorious and clueless. Unfortunately for us, though, Trump is not just a laughingstock. He’s a powerful laughingstock who has no problem dangling the whole country before some kind of death, whether it’s through lack of health insurance, massive debt, or war.

But then again, Trump is essentially the star of Fox News, the only thing he truly cares about, so maybe there is something to what he’s saying!