Daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres says President Donald Trump is not welcome on her show.
In an interview with Today host Matt Lauer Thursday, DeGeneres was asked if she would ever invite the president on her show for an interview, as she did with former president Barack Obama and former 2016 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.
“Um, no,” she said. “Because I’m not going to change his mind.”
“He’s against everything that I stand for,” the Ellen host further explained. “We need to look at someone else who looks different than us and believes in something that we don’t believe in and still accept them, and still let them have their rights.”
Obama twice guested on DeGeneres’ highly-rated show; once in 2011 and again last February.
Elsewhere in her interview, the talk show host revealed that after she came out as gay — 20 years ago on her 90s show Ellen — she could not find work in Hollywood for three years.
The 59-year-old criticized the president’s refugee policy earlier this year on social media.
“For me, America is great because of all the people who came here. Not in spite of them,” DeGeneres tweeted to her 65 million Twitter followers, along with the hashtag #NoBan:
For me, America is great because of all the people who came here. Not in spite of them. #NoBan
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) January 29, 2017
P.S. My grandparents were immigrants. The woman making us pizza right now is Muslim. And I'm grateful for all of them. #NoBan
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) January 29, 2017
DeGeneres piled on the president again a few days later on her show, using the plot of her animated movie Finding Dory to slam Trump’s travel order.
“If you haven’t heard, this is what happened over the weekend: On Friday, the president gave an order banning people from seven countries from entering the United States, including people with green cards. Then on Saturday, the President screened Finding Dory at the White House,” DeGeneres said. “I don’t get political, but I will say that I am against one of those two things.”
“Finding Dory is about a fish named Dory. Dory lives in Australia, and these are her parents, and they live in America. And I don’t know what religion they are, but her dad sounds a little Jewish. It doesn’t matter,” said DeGeneres, who voiced the title character in the Disney film.
“Dory arrives in America with her friends Marlin and Nemo. She ends up at the Marine Life Institute behind a large wall. They all have to get over the wall, and you won’t believe it, but that wall has almost no effect in keeping them out,” she continued.
“Even though Dory gets into America, she ends up separated from her family, but the other animals help Dory–animals that don’t even need her, animals that don’t have anything in common with her. They help her, even though they’re completely different colors because that’s what you do when you see someone in need; you help them,” DeGeneres said. “So that is what I hope everyone who’s watching Finding Dory has learned.”
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.