Taking down Trump

It’s a sign of a healthy democracy that the President-elect who will take office in just 10 days is cruelly panned as Donald Trump was at the Golden Globes. It seems Trump may face the most criticism from America’s liberals, from where large chunks of Hollywood’s creative brains emerge. By standards of criticism of a public persona, that too someone who will soon be “leader of the free world”, Meryl Streep’s taking down of Trump was fierce. Her searing thrust at one of America’s most divisive figures, whose campaign managed to step on the toes of just about everyone, was a sensational critique of Candidate Trump. Streep, one of Hollywood’s most distinguished actresses, who received the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award, minced no words in attacking the man seen as a bully while imitating a disabled reporter.

“Those liberal movie people,” Trump said contemptuously in response to the speech he only heard about. At stake is the power of the press to hold the powerful to account, which is probably what will suffer most in Washington’s new avatar given Trump’s inclination to blame the media for negatively projecting his activities. A taste of cinematic exaggeration was seen as actor Hugh Laurie accepted his award “on behalf of psychopathic billionaires everywhere”. Whether Trump will be able to take office without bringing in the baggage of the bitter campaign is a million-dollar question. Hollywood painted Trump in his most villainous colours, but what engenders hope is that nothing is ever as bad as the worst-case scenario: that President Trump may be unrecognisable from Candidate Trump.