Meryl Streep gives it back to Donald Trump

Meryl Streep has responded to US President Donald Trump calling her “overrated”, following her speech at the Golden Globes last month. “Yes, I’m the most overrated and over decorated actress,” the Oscar winner said.

The actress was speaking at the Human Rights Campaign’s 2017 Greater New York Gala Dinner on Saturday. Assailing Trump as aggressive and thinskinned and mounting a defence of LGBTQ freedoms, Streep argued that Trump’s election imperils gay rights, women’s rights, and other civil rights.

“If you think people got mad when they thought the government was coming after their guns, wait until they come and try to take away our happiness,” Streep said to a two-minute long standing ovation.

“We’re not going to go back to the bad old days of ignorance and oppression and hiding who we are. We owe it to the people who have died for our rights, and who have died before they even got their own,” she said.

Streep, who received the gay rights organisation’s Ally for Equality Award, said that critics of the new President have one thing to be grateful for. “If we live through this precarious moment,” she said.

“If [Trump’s] catastrophic instinct to retaliate doesn’t lead us to nuclear winter, we will have much to thank our current leader for. He will have woken us up to how fragile freedom is,” she said.

At the Golden Globe Awards on January 8, Streep slammed Trump while accepting the Cecil B DeMille Award for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment.

Trump later lashed out on Twitter, calling Streep an overrated actress. —IANS