This week, following the latest edition of the long-running Oscars award ceremony, ex-President Donald Trump carried on his tradition of complaining about prominent cultural events. He almost sounded like he was looking for something to do, because he insisted in all-caps in a press release that the organizers of the Oscars award ceremony should “BRING BACK A GREAT HOST” for the event. Is that his not-so-subtle way of suggesting himself or one of his allies for the role?
In that same rambling press release, Trump went on a bizarre screed about shifts in the marketing for the Oscars award ceremony, which — until at least 2013 or so — was officially billed as the annual Academy Awards. Although these days, the television special is marketed as “the Oscars,” the awards that honorees receive as a part of the proceedings have been known as “Oscars” since 1939. Referring to the awards as “the Oscars” is not a remotely new feature of American cultural conversations.
Trump angrily commented as follows:
‘What used to be called The Academy Awards, and now is called the “Oscars”–a far less important and elegant name–had the lowest Television Ratings in recorded history, even much lower than last year, which set another record low. If they keep with the current ridiculous formula, it will only get worse–if that’s possible. Go back 15 years, look at the formula they then used, change the name back to THE ACADEMY AWARDS, don’t be so politically correct and boring, and do it right. ALSO, BRING BACK A GREAT HOST.’
He then added yet another complaint about so-called “cancel culture,” a term that conservatives like to use to villainize efforts to hold them to a very basic level of accountability for their actions. Instead of freaking out and claiming that they’re getting “cancelled” for pushing vitriol like the anti-democratic lies that Trump regularly espouses, certain prominent conservatives could just not push unpopular nonsense. Instead, prominent Republicans — like Trump — evidently prefer to stick to their victim complexes.
He added the following:
‘These television people spend all their time thinking about how to promote the Democrat Party, which is destroying out Country, and cancel Conservatives and Republicans. That formula certainly hasn’t worked very well for The Academy!’
Check out his remarks below:
Two days after the ceremony, the former president has some takes about the Oscars. pic.twitter.com/cFnw3u9x5u
— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) April 27, 2021
