Watch Spike Lee Repeatedly Call Donald Trump A “Motherfucker” At Cannes Film Festival
I think I count seven "motherfuckers".
“Motherfucker”: that’s how director Spike Lee (repeatedly) described Donald Trump yesterday at Cannes Film Festival, as part of a broader criticism of the way that the US president dealt with the deadly neo-Nazi riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year.
“We have this guy in the White House — I’m not gonna say his motherfucking name,” Lee began, “And that motherfucker was given the chance to say we are about love and not hate.”
In Charlottesville last year, one woman was killed after thousands of neo-Nazis rallied together and clashed with counter-protestors. Leaders around the world and in the United States denounced the violence, criticising the neo-Nazis in particular for adopting the violent tactics which ultimately lead to the death of a counter-protestor.
Trump responded to the violence by saying that “there were bad guys on both sides”.
“That motherfucker did not denounce the motherfucking clan, the alt-right, and those Nazis,” Lee continued. “It was his defining moment and he could have said to the world ‘not the United States’ and that we were better than that.”
He continued: “The United States of America was built upon a genocide of native people, and slavery. That is the fabric of the United States of America. As my Brooklyn brother Jay-Z would say: ‘facts.'”
Lee’s remarks came as he launched his new movie BlacKkKlansman. The movie follows the story of a black policeman that got inside the Ku Klux Klan back in the ’70s. (The trailer’s out, and it looks sick.)
According to the Hollywood Reporter, it received a standing ovation at Cannes on Monday night, and viewers applauded throughout the film.
Electric 6-minute standing ?? for Spike Lee’s #BkacKkKlansman in Palais. Powerful ending, congrats from @theweeknd @bellahadid @NaomiCampbell #Cannes2018. Cheers for Adam Driver, Topher Grace, lead JDW pic.twitter.com/K4wRleF35W
— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) May 14, 2018
The film has a cast that includes John David Washington (son of Denzel) and Star Wars‘ Adam Driver. The end of the film includes footage from the Charlottesville rally.
Anyway, you can check out Lee’s full Trump rant below: