Hollywood celebrities experienced a collective meltdown on Monday following President Donald Trump’s address to the nation in which he called for national healing while also vowing to deploy the U.S. military against Antifa and other violent protestors if state governments fail to quell the chaos.
Stars including Alyssa Milano, Patricia Arquette, and Rob Reiner rushed to social media to express their outrage at his speech, calling the president the “gestapo”, a “fake Christian,” and a “fascist.”
President Trump spoke Monday evening from the Rose Garden, urging national unity but also signaling a zero-tolerance policy to violence.
“As we speak, I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults, and the wanton destruction of property,” he said. “We will end it now.”
President Trump then walked the short distance to St. John’s Church, which was attacked and set on fire by rioters on Sunday.
The president’s speech was apparently too much for Alyssa Milano to handle. “Fucking trump gestapo,” she tweeted. “It’s the death of democracy.”
Samuel L. Jackson, Ice T, and Michael Rapaport rushed to conclude that the president had declared martial law, when in fact President Trump made no such declaration on Monday.
Star Wars actor Mark Hamill repeated the martial-law claim while mocking President Trump for holding a Bible in front of St. John’s.
Ice Cube took matters even further by speculating that President Trump will drop a nuclear bomb on a U.S. city.
John Cusack wrote in a now-deleted tweet that the president “has declared like a pig [wallowing] in shit ‘my American carnage has finally arrived.'”
Rob Reiner compared President Trump to Confederate president Jefferson Davis.
Patricia Arquette called the president a “cardboard fake Christian” for walking to St. John’s Church.
Mia Farrow admonished the president for not visiting the protestors who have descended upon the White House, calling him a “coward.”
Bette Midler faulted the president for taking an aggressive stance on violent protests.
Stephen King dismissed the threat posed by Antifa, calling it a group of “apolitical hooligans and smash-and-grab artists.”
The Hangover actor Ed Helms tweeted that President Trump gave “the worst speech in the history of our great nation.”
Actor Wendell Pierce said that the removal of protestors from the area outside The White House so that the president could visit the church constitutes a “constitutional crisis.” He also claimed in a separate tweet that the president is inciting violence by invoking the military.
Actor Billy Baldwin tweeted that President Trump failed to offer an “open hand… only a clenched fist.”
Ellen Barkin compared Atty. General William Barr to Hitler. Barr accompanied the president on his walk to St. John’s during which they passed lines of what appeared to be U.S. military personnel.
Actors Bradley Whitford, Jeffrey Wright and Ken Jeong claimed that the president’s walk to St. John’s was phony.
Actor Ethan Embry claimed that President Trump “gassed 1000 Americans” in order to walk to a “fucking church.” He also tweeted, “Fuck you Donald Trump.”
Actress Piper Perabo used the president’s address to demand his resignation.