After the Parkland school shooting, Donald Trump's aides advised him not to golf that weekend, because it would make for bad optics. At about the same time, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals over interference in the 2016 election. So, needless to say, the President was in a pretty bad mood. That might explain why he spent the weekend rage-Tweeting, lashing out at the FBI, Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey.
Last Sunday, Oprah appeared on 60 minutes, and led a discussion about Trump's first year with voters. However, the President did not approve of her hosting. After the broadcast, he tweeted, "Just watched a very insecure Oprah Winfrey, who at one point I knew very well, interview a panel of people on 60 Minutes. The questions were biased and slanted, the facts incorrect. Hope Oprah runs so she can be exposed and defeated just like all of the others!" (Since Oprah's inspiring speech at the Golden Globes, rumors have been swirling about a possible presidential bid in 2020.)
Oprah never responded to the President's tweet - probably too busy giving cars away to people. However, she recently appeared on The Ellen Show, and Ellen asked her about Trump's tweet. After shrugging her shoulders in a "wtf" gesture, Oprah replied, "I don’t like giving negativity power...But what I actually did was I went back and looked at the tape to see if there was any place that [I was slanted and biased]." She goes to defend the segment as fair, explaining that it was critiqued by multiple people, and she actually spoke up to make sure that Trump supporters' voices were heard. "I was working very hard to do the opposite of what I was hate-tweeted about," she clarified.
Ellen seemed pretty fair and balanced in that exchange, but in her previous monologue, she rallied to Oprah's defense. After reading Trump's hate-tweet, she said, "Oh no you didn’t. No, no, no, he’s gone too far. Oprah is my friend. And when you mess with Oprah, you mess with me." You hear that, President Trump? Ellen has Oprah's back, and you don't want to mess with Ellen. She looks harmless, but it's all an act. She'll knock you out, and then dance awkwardly over your body. And then show a cute kitten clip.
In the video, Ellen refutes the claim that Oprah is "insecure," by showing a clip of her electrifying Golden Globes speech about female empowerment that inspired the audience to give a lengthy standing ovation. Then she accuses Trump of being insecure, by showing the infamous clip of him bragging about his penis size at a 2016 GOP presidential debate. "Look at those hands, are they small hands?" Trump exclaimed. "[Senator Marco Rubio] referred to my hands -- 'if they're small, something else must be small.' I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee."
"Everyone knows that when you talk about how big your hands are, it means you’re very secure," joked Ellen.
The surprisingly savage talk show host goes on to compare how Oprah and Trump help people differently. While Oprah generously gave cars to everyone in her studio audience, Trump indifferently tossed rolls of paper towels to hurricane victims in Puerto Rico. "You get paper towels! You get paper towels! You get paper towels!" quipped Ellen.
"President Trump, it’s time for an aha moment," she continued, using Oprah's famous catchphrase. "You’re not just some guy on Twitter anymore, you’re the president for all of us. It is your job to unite people and you don’t do it by attacking people, especially Oprah. I mean, George Washington may be the father of our country, but Oprah is the mother of our country."
Whoa. Note to self: Don't mess with Ellen.