‘Transparent’ Creator Jill Soloway Calls Donald Trump ‘Inheritor of Hitler’ at Emmys

Berlin Blues: Hari Nef in “Transparent.” Image by Amazon Studios

By Lilly Maier September 19, 2016

‘Transparent’ creator Jill Soloway referred to Donald Trump as “the inheritor to Hitler” at the Emmys.

The Republican presidential candidate “needs to be called out every chance we get as one of the most dangerous monsters to ever approach our lifetimes,” Soloway told reporters backstage.

“He’s a complete dangerous monster,” she said. “Any moment I have to call out Donald Trump as the inheritor to Hitler, I will.”

Soloway who is Jewish, won an Emmy for best directing for a comedy series. Transparent is based on Solway’s father who came out as transgender, and has been called the “Jewiest show ever.”

During season two, Transparent had several flash backs to Nazi Germany. Backstage, Soloway called the Holocaust-related storyline “incredible” timely given our current political climate.

“Jews were other-ized in Nazi Germany to gain political power for Hitler, and right now Donald Trump is doing the same thing,” Soloway said.

“He calls people pigs if they don’t look like beauty pageant contestants. He blames Muslims and Mexicans for our problems. He makes fun of disabled people.”

Soloway was not the only celebrity who attacked the Republican front runner at the Emmys.

Host Jimmy Kimmel pointed out the creator of the Apprentice, the show that helped Donald Trump rise to fame, sitting in the audience: “Thanks to Mark Burnett, we don’t have to watch reality shows anymore, because we’re living them,” Kimmel said.

David Mandel, the executive producer of the political comedy Veep, said backstage that some of the satirical ideas they come up with “pale in comparison to that madman threatening Hillary Clinton, not once but twice.”

Mandel also gave a shout-out to all the “chubby Jews from the Upper West Side” when he excepted Veep’s Emmy for outstanding comedy series. “Wherever you are, thank you!” he added.

Lilly Maier is a news intern at the Forward. Reach her at maier@forward.com or on Twitter at @lillymmaier.

Lilly Maier is a news intern at the Forward. She is a graduate journalism student at New York University, where she studies as a Fulbright scholar. She also holds a B.A. in Jewish history from the University of Munich. Contact Lilly at maier@forward.com, read her portfolio, or follow her on Twitter.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO