Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel dove right into politics on Sunday in his opener for the 89th Academy Awards, by relentlessly ripped into President Donald Trump.
“Maybe this is not a popular thing to say, but I want to say thank you to President Trump,” said the comedian. “Remember last year when it seemed like the Oscar’s were racist? That's gone. Thanks to him.”
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2016 picked up a lot of heat when nominations featured a lack of minority actors, writers, directors and producers. But Trump has been relentlessly dogged by allegations he is racist throughout his presidential campaign.
“As you know, I don't have to tell anybody, the country is divided right now,” Kimmel went on. “I've been getting a lot of advice, people telling me, you need to say something to unite us, and – let's just get something straight off the top. I'm not – I can't do that. That's not – there's only one ‘Braveheart’ in this room, and he's not going to unite us, either, OK?,” he said, alluding to actor/director Mel Gibson.
“I'm not the man to unite this country, but it can be done, he said. “You know, if every person watching this show – I don't want to get too serious. There are millions of people watching right now and if every one of you took a minute to reach out to one person you disagree with, someone you like and have a positive, considerate conversation, not as liberals or conservatives, but as Americans, if we would all do that, we would make America great again. We really could. It starts with us.”
Kimmel also referenced actress Meryl Streep, who used her speech at the Golden Globes to call out Trump for appearing to mock a disabled New York Times reporter. Trump slammed Speech afterwards, and called her overrated.
“We are here tonight to honor great actors but we're also here to honor the actors who seem great but actually really aren't. And of all the great actors here in Hollywood, one in familiar has stood the test of time for her many uninspiring and overrated performances. See? That's what he means. May I say, from her mediocre early work in ‘The Deer Hunter’ and ‘Out of Africa’ to her underwhelming performance in ‘Sophie's Choice,’ Meryl Streep has phoned it in for more than 50 films over the course of her lackluster career.”
He added: “This is Meryl's 20th Oscar nomination. Even more, made even more amazing, considering the fact that she wasn't even in a movie this year. We just wrote her name down out of habit. Meryl, stand up, if you would. Everybody, please join me in giving her a totally undeserved round of applause, will you? The highly overrated Meryl Streep, everyone. We're going to have fun tonight. I hope we're going to have fun tonight. Nice dress, by the way. Is that an Ivanka?”
Streep did not win in the Best Actress category, for which she was nominated, so she was unable to repeat any criticism of Trump from the stage.
Later, Kimmel noted that the show had gone on for more than two hours and Trump had not tweeted yet, even though he had been mentioned unfavorably several times.
"I'm starting to get worried about him," Kimmel said. Then tweeted to Trump from live onstage.
Matt Drudge took note of the Trump bashing, noting on "The Drudge Report" "Sermon from La La Land; Trump Bashing on the Boulevard."
He later tweeted:
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