At the 74th annual Golden Globe awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association honored Meryl Streep with the Cecil B. DeMille Award. In her acceptance speech, Streep subtweeted President-elect Donald Trump IRL, criticizing his bullying and harassment of immigrants and the press throughout his campaign.
“Disrespect incites disrespect. Violence incites violence,” Streep said. “When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.”
Almost instantaneously, the internet knew just who, when, and how Streep’s targets would strike back against her speech. As if they had already played this version of the board game Clue time and time again, many Twitters made an educated hypothesis: It would be the president-elect, in the wee hours of the early morning, with his Twitter app.
Trump is especially fond of hitting back by calling people overrated.
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) January 9, 2017
Not sure that's gonna work with Meryl Streep's career. pic.twitter.com/IqdBZVBD6C
Countdown to Donald Trump tweeting that Meryl Streep is overrated. #GoldenGlobes
— caprice crane (@capricecrane) January 9, 2017
Going to bed now so I can be ready to cover the likely 5 am Trump tweet on Meryl Streep. "Terrible Speech!" "Overrated!" #GoldenGlobes
— Pat Kiernan (@patkiernan) January 9, 2017
How long before @realDonaldTrump tweets that Meryl Streep is overrated?
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) January 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/DanaSchwartzzz/status/818295430203068417
Donald Trump is going to have vicious things to say about Sophie's Choice in the morning. Bad acting. Fake tears. Not believable. Overrated.
— John Levenstein (@johnlevenstein) January 9, 2017
Donald Trump tweet, probably: the highly overrated Meryl Streep is a liar… I have never even worn Prada. Sad.
— (((Jodi))) (@NobleKnope) January 9, 2017
"Meryl Streep is old. Overrated. I've been in better movies than she has." — future Donald Trump tweet
— Bryan Levine (@Bryan_Levine) January 9, 2017
So, how long till Donald Trump tweets that Meryl Streep is overrated? 🙃 #GoldenGlobes
— Lizzie 💫 (@lizziethat) January 9, 2017
It's only a matter of time now before Donald Trump goes on a Twitter rant about how overrated and how much of a loser Meryl Streep is
— Shiv (@theshivsharma) January 9, 2017
Sure, Trump wasn’t up at 5am to scathe the “overrated” actress, but he delivered as expected just an hour-and-a-half later.
Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017
Twitter continued to troll with the punches that evening by defending Streep from her second biggest critic: Fox News contributor Meghan McCain.
McCain tweeted that Streep’s speech is an example of how Trump won the presidential election.
This Meryl Streep speech is why Trump won. And if people in Hollywood don't start recognizing why and how – you will help him get re-elected
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) January 9, 2017
No one bought that reasoning.
Um she asked him not to make fun of disabled people and advocated for the freedom of the press and the arts you fucking moron https://t.co/IzZexd7Bb4
— billy eichner (@billyeichner) January 9, 2017
It is a credit to Meryl Streep's star power that people are saying she swung the election with a speech she gave 2 months after the voting.
— Josh Gondelman (@joshgondelman) January 9, 2017
.@MeghanMcCain so Meryl Streep explaining the multicultural identity of Hollywood and championing empathy is why Trump won? Please enlighten
— Eddie Huang (@MrEddieHuang) January 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/rezaaslan/status/818296136892940289
The right is shitting the bed about Meryl Streep's speech to protect journalists and not the Russian hack of the election?#MerylStreep pic.twitter.com/YK0iqLgtVV
— Billy Baldwin (@BillyBaldwin) January 9, 2017
Twitter also shut down Tomi Lahren, the conservative commentator for the Blaze, after she let Streep know how “out of touch” she is.
Meryl bout to get some "final thoughts" tomorrow. These entitled Hollywood crybabies still don't understand how out of touch they are!
— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) January 9, 2017
.@TomiLahren "entitled Hollywood crybabies"
— Brian Michael Scully – brianscully.bsky.social (@brianscully) January 9, 2017
Tell me more. pic.twitter.com/iTo7goPIlZ
You do that, @TomiLahren. You do that. pic.twitter.com/OGwweNyVXJ
— shauna (@goldengateblond) January 9, 2017
Does Tomi really think Meryl Streep gives any fucks about what she has to say? 😂 pic.twitter.com/wmljRSIUpu
— Cami Sheffield (@CamiAnnS) January 9, 2017
Tomi Lahren: You liberals are always so triggered.
— 𝚑𝚒𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚌 𝚙𝚒𝚡𝚒𝚎 𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖 𝚐𝚒𝚛𝚕 🍉 (@mathewrodriguez) January 9, 2017
Meryl Streep : "Making fun of disabled people is bad."
Tomi: pic.twitter.com/E9Zz9MTN7v
Tomi Lahren: stay triggered snowflakes! ;)
— minx (@minxiepop) January 9, 2017
Tomi Lahren: *has a meltdown because of Meryl Streep* pic.twitter.com/WAloBmVt9w
https://twitter.com/freeblackgirl/status/818326069652627456
It was a long night, so get some rest, Twitter. The Golden Globes might be over, but Trump’s presidency is about to get started.