Trump on Fox News - Screengrab - H 2017
YouTube/FoxNewsIn an interview with Fox & Friends, President Donald Trump doubled down on his stance against this year’s Oscars telecast.
During the sit-down at the White House, which will air in full on Tuesday, Trump said that celebrities at the Oscars, including host Jimmy Kimmel, had to pull out “the race card” because the show was “losing badly.”
“It just seems like the other side, whenever they’re losing badly, they always pull out the race card,” the president said during the interview. “I’ve watched it for years. I watched it against Ronald Reagan, I’ve watched it against so many other people. And they always like pulling out the race card.”
Trump has been a popular topic this awards season, and was brought up several times during the Oscars broadcast on Sunday night, with host Kimmel even tweeting at him during the show: “Hey, u up?”
“I want to say thank you to President Trump,” Kimmel said during his monologue. “Remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars were racist? That’s gone, thanks to him.”
Kimmel said later, “This broadcast is being watched by millions of Americans and — around the world — 225 countries that now hate us, and I think that is an amazing thing.”
Trump also explained his planned absence at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April, which he tweeted Saturday that he will skip.
He said that he decided not to attend because “over the years you make a mistake I fully understand when they hit you,” but “a lot of the stories are made up. I believe a lot of the stories are pure fiction.”
“I just thought it would be better if I didn’t do the dinner,” said the president, adding that he may decide to go next year.
Trump also explained during the interview his plans for Tuesday’s address to Congress, saying that he’ll be talking about the military and the border, as well as a “really terrific” healthcare plan.
“And remember, on the border and throughout our country, we’re getting the bad ones out, the bad people. Gang members, drug lords, in some cases murderers,” he said.
