“Rosie is a very unattractive person, both inside and out,” Donald Trump said in an interview on “Entertainment Tonight.”
“She’s basically a disaster,” Trump, then a New York City real estate developer and TV personality, said of comedian Rosie O’Donnell. Days earlier, O’Donnell, a co-host on “The View,” had knocked Trump as a “snake oil salesman” on the daytime TV talk show.
The year was 2006, and it marked the beginning of what would become one of Trump’s longest — and perhaps ugliest — public war of words with a celebrity.
Now, nearly two decades and dozens of buzzy Hollywood beefs later, President Trump shows no sign of abandoning his apparent penchant for star-studded clashes.
In the past week, he made headlines as part of an escalating feud with Bruce Springsteen.
The president posted a video Wednesday on social media showing him striking the “Born in the U.S.A.” singer with an animated golf ball.
The putter-related poke came after Springsteen railed against Trump while kicking off his concert tour in England, saying the U.S. is “currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”
“Never liked him, never liked his music,” the president wrote on Truth Social following the rocker’s remarks, calling Springsteen a “pushy, obnoxious JERK.” He later appeared to take the row a step further, pressing for a “major investigation” into why some stars, including Springsteen, lined up to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2024 White House bid.
The Springsteen clash was the latest in Trump’s long history of high-profile verbal brawls, which include dust-ups with late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel, actors Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep and media personality Chrissy Teigen.
“He’s taken on some of the most powerful celebrities, at least in terms of popularity: Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Springsteen. He is unafraid to tackle any celebrity — big, small or in-between,” said Melvin Williams, an associate professor of communication and media studies at Pace University.
“His behavior has been consistent, so there are no ambiguities here about who he is, how he operates, how he might handle conflict, and how far he’s willing to go to in his words ‘win,’” Williams said.
Trump has described his name-calling in the past as reactionary, saying in 2015, “I’m a counterpuncher.”
While some of the public battles with famous faces might appear as if Trump’s simply sounding off, radio host Cooper Lawrence said they could actually be more calculated moves.
“It definitely sends a narrative to people about where he stands, that he won’t be bullied,” the “Celebritocracy: The Misguided Agenda of Celebrity Politics in a Postmodern Democracy”
author and “Sunrise” Australia entertainment correspondent said.
“They’re saying, if he’s going to go after somebody as popular and beloved as Bruce Springsteen, maybe he’ll also go after [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and some of our enemies. Maybe this is really more about his strength as a person,” Lawrence said.
“This targeting of celebrities is a clear political communication tactic for Trump,” Williams said.
The squabbles with performers can both “implant him in celebrity and political media” and can also “serve as a deflection mechanism to really avoid relevant discussions of his presumed political shortcomings as a president,” Williams said.
For O’Donnell, Trump’s attacks were “the most bullying” she ever experienced in her life.
“It was national, and it was sanctioned societally. Whether I deserved it is up to your own interpretation,” the comic said in a 2014 interview.
Other stars have brushed off Trump’s barbs.
During an interview last month, “Good Night, and Good Luck” actor George Clooney was asked for his reaction to the commander in chief labeling him a “second-rate movie ‘star.’” The president’s dig came after Clooney spoke out about what he said was the Trump administration’s efforts to stifle the media.
“I don’t care,” Clooney responded, when asked by “CBS This Morning” host Gayle King about Trump’s insult.
“My job is not to please the president of the United States. My job is to try to tell the truth when I can and when I have the opportunity,” Clooney said.
Kimmel, both a frequent Trump critic and a favorite target of the president, has repeatedly mocked him for seemingly taking time to carry on with their feud while in the White House.
“While the haters say you should be focused on the ‘important’ things, know that I appreciate you always including me,” the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host said in an Instagram post last year, after Trump ridiculed the job he did as the host of the Academy Awards. Kimmel’s remark echoed a chorus of critics over the years who have slammed Trump’s showdowns with Hollywood heavyweights as being beneath the dignity of the person occupying the Oval Office.
And still other entertainers don’t always engage with Trump.
The president attempted to revive his duel with Swift earlier this month, when he claimed credit for what he described as a drop in her popularity.
But the Truth Social post directed at the “Bad Blood” singer was met with radio silence from the megastar, who had just wrapped up her sold-out “The Eras Tour” and had endorsed Harris in last year’s presidential election.
Although the celebs might not always appreciate the presidential tussles, Williams said Trump picking fights with Hollywood hotshots could play to his base: “For his supporters, they love it. They love to watch it. They love to witness it. They love to talk about it, and they love to build their camaraderie around President Trump around it.”
The battles with big names have become a “key pillar of his Trumpian ideology, which is stand on business and handle your business,” Williams added, and a “very public way to flex his power as president.”
Lawrence, who holds a doctorate in psychology, said the takeaway for Trump’s fanbase might be that “he’s starting the battle with Bruce Springsteen, but wait until he gets to [North Korea’s] Kim Jong Un or whoever he’s going after next.”
“It makes it seem like he’s not going to take crap from anybody — whether it’s Bruce Springsteen, whether it’s a political leader — he’s going to stay strong,” Lawrence said.
As he ticked off a laundry list of insults aimed at O’Donnell in 2006, Trump had a final message to share with the viewers: “With me, we fight back.”
“When somebody attacks me,” he said, “I attack them back.”
