Allen knew he’d get blowback for laughing off Trump’s actions
During Donald Trump’s presidency, Tim Allen tried not to say too much about politics, aware that his conservative views could make him a target.
Allen, however, ended up saying too much in a new interview in which he laughingly said he enjoyed the way the 45th president “pissed people off.”
“I literally don’t preach anything,” the “Home Improvement” star told Marc Maron during a podcast interview that was released Monday. “I’m not telling anybody else how to live. I don’t like that, ‘we should do this’ or, ‘we should do that.’ ” Then Allen said: “Once I realized that the last president pissed people off, I kind of liked that. So it was fun to just not say anything. Didn’t join in the lynching crowd.”
As Allen probably expected, his comments about Trump are getting traffic on Twitter.
Trump critics are especially aggrieved that the “Last Man Standing” star admitted taking delight in the way Trump angered a majority of Americans with his controversial actions and rhetoric. The critics expressed annoyance or horror that the “Toy Story” actor would make light of things Trump did in regard to COVID-19, women’s and LGBTQ rights, Russia or the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Allen has been in the hot seat before. In 2017, the Anne Frank Center of Mutual Respect called on him to apologize after he compared being a Republican in Hollywood to living in Nazi Germany. “You’ve gotta be real careful around here,” Allen said during an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” He was asked about attending Trump’s inauguration. “You can get beat up. If you don’t believe what everybody believes this is like ’30s Germany.”
Steven Goldstein, the executive director of the Anne Frank Center, said Allen’s glib comment was no laughing matter, Variety reported. “No one in Hollywood today is subjecting you or anyone else to what the Nazis imposed on Jews in the 1930s — the world’s most evil program of dehumanization, imprisonment and mass brutality, implemented by an entire national government, as the prelude for the genocide of nearly an entire people.”
Goldstein added: “Sorry, Tim, that’s just not the same as getting turned down for a movie role.”