Film

Donald Trump Attacks ‘Parasite’, Wants It To Be Like ‘Gone With The Wind’

"I'm looking for like ... Gone with the Wind," Trump said. "Can we get like Gone with the Wind back, please? Sunset Boulevard, so many great movies."

by Joseph Earp  21 February 2020
Donald Trump hates Parasite

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

Donald Trump might the supposed leader of the free world, but he’s first and foremost a celebrity, and he’s spent decades floating in and out of Hollywood circles.

Also, like a lot of people with an inferiority complex, he’s spent that time hating the very actors and creatives that he so clearly wants to be accepted by. Long before he ran for President, the man was using his Twitter account to sledge the Oscars, provide capsule film reviews, and to comment on the relationship between Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, amongst other issues of tabloid gossip.

If you miss that version of Trump, then don’t worry — he made a brief return at a rally today, in order to sledge the Academy from handing out an Oscar to beloved socialist thriller Parasite.

In particular, Trump’s issue is — unsurprisingly — that the top award from the Academy went to an international film, rather than a “real” American picture.

“How bad were the Academy Awards this year, did you see?” Trump told a rapturous crowd. “‘And the winner is … a movie from South Korea.'”

But they weren’t all sledges. He also took time to praise the films that he personally sees worthy, including Southern epic romance Gone with the Wind (read: racist movie about the Civil War) and barbed takedown of Hollywood hypocrisy, Sunset Boulevard.

“I’m looking for like … Gone with the Wind,” Trump said. “Can we get like Gone with the Wind back, please? Sunset Boulevard, so many great movies.”

Neon, the American distributor of Parasite, was quick to reply.

It’s not just questions of literacy that would make Trump hate Parasite, of course. It’s a venomous takedown of the entire process of capitalism. Of course it doesn’t sit well with Donald Trump.