Bret Easton Ellis: Barbra Streisand And Lena Dunham Need To Stop ‘Blaming’ Trump

Image by Getty
Bret Easton Ellis had some choice words for Lena Dunham and Barbra Streisand during his latest podcast.
The “American Psycho” author criticized the two celebrities for their continued outspoken stance against President Trump, and their discussions of the emotional toll his presidency has taken on them.
“You can dislike the fact that Trump was elected, yes, definitely, and yet still understand and accept ultimately that he was elected this time around,” Ellis said. “Or you can have a complete mental and emotional collapse and let the Trump presidency define you, which I think is absurd. If you are still losing your s— about Trump, I think you should probably go to a shrink and not let the bad man that was elected define your self-victimization and your life. You are letting him win.”
Ellis went on to slam Dunham and Streisand for their assertions that Trump has had a direct effect on their respective weight loss and weight gain.
“Barbra Streisand says she’s gaining weight because of Trump. Lena Dunham says she’s losing weight because of Trump. Really? You’re blaming the president for your own problems and neuroses?” he said.
The author then criticized the “moral superiority of the left,” and picked apart Meryl Streep’s anti-Trump speech at the Golden Globes.
“Instead of talking about all the filmmakers she had worked with and who had passed away in the last two years, Michael Cimino, Mike Nichols, Nora Ephron, or especially what it was like playing Carrie Fisher in ‘Postcards From the Edge,’ since Fisher had died just two weeks earlier, Streep used this moment to go on an anti-Trump rant for 10 minutes on national TV,” Ellis said.
Ellis, who didn’t vote in the election because his home state of California always goes blue, pointed out that he is not a fan of the president either — and acknowledged it wasn’t an accident that Patrick Bateman, the sociopathic protagonist of “American Psycho,” admired Trump.
“A long time ago in a country far, far away I had made Trump Patrick Bateman’s hero in ‘American Psycho,’” he said. “I had researched the odious business practices, the lying, Roy Cohn as his mentor, the hideous racism. Followed his trajectory. I had done my homework. You do not need to remind me. I know it all.”
Thea Glassman is an Associate Editor at the Forward. Reach her at [email protected]
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Shackled, imprisoned and subjected to false accusations, Kilmar Abrego Garcia recalls the fate of Captain Alfred Dreyfus
-
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
-
Culture In Pope Francis, a voice for interfaith dialogue and against antisemitism
-
Fast Forward Israeli army fires deputy commander after finding ‘operational errors’ in killing of 15 Gazans
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.