President Trump's schadenfreude over the Oscars' Best Picture blunder

(Image credit: Aude Guerrucci-Pool/Getty Images)

published 27 February 2017

President Trump wasn't impressed with the 2017 Academy Awards. In an interview Monday with Breitbart News, Trump said the awards show Sunday night was "a little sad," probably because stars spent too much time criticizing him. "It took away from the glamor of the Oscars," Trump said of the night's political commentary. "It didn't feel like a very glamorous evening. I've been to the Oscars. There was something very special missing, and then to end that way was sad."

Trump suggested the mix-up at the end — when La La Land was mistakenly awarded Best Picture, only for the award to be passed off minutes later to the rightful winner Moonlight — actually may have happened because everyone was paying so much attention to him. "I think they were focused so hard on politics that they didn't get the act together at the end," Trump said.

Trump was mentioned many times during the awards show. Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel repeatedly ribbed Trump throughout the evening, even tweeting at the president at one point, and Casey Affleck deemed Trump's policies "abhorrent" during his Best Actor acceptance speech. Other stars slammed the commander-in-chief without even saying his name, rallying support for immigrants in the face of Trump's travel ban and calling for tolerance and acceptance. However, the Best Picture mix-up more likely had something to do with presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway being handed the wrong envelope.