Opinion

LIZ PEEK: Hollywood trashes Trump again — and proves just how out of touch it is

'One Battle After Another,' this year’s Oscar winner for Best Picture, carried a strong liberal message. Maybe that’s why, despite good reviews, it bombed at the box office

By Liz Peek Fox News

Published March 17, 2026 5:00am EDT

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Conan O'Brien swipes at TPUSA halftime show, Kid Rock during Oscars monologue

Comedian Conan O'Brien took a swipe at Kid Rock and Turning Point USA during his Oscars monologue on Sunday and joked there was an "alternate" award show.

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Hollywood elites just cannot help themselves. There they were, sailing through Oscar night with Conan O’Brien doing his amusing and mostly inoffensive emcee bit, and actors like Amy Madigan (Best Supporting Actress) happily gushing about their awards, when along comes washed-up comic Jimmy Kimmel the proverbial ant at the picnic, blasting President Donald Trump. Thank heavens Trump critic Sean Penn, who also won an Oscar, was unable to attend.

It could have been worse. Yes, there were the usual dark hints about what a troubled world we live in and at least one reference to Palestine, but mostly the show was upbeat and tolerable.

That was gravely disappointing to some. Hours before Hollywood’s big night, The New York Times ran an opinion piece titled "Oscar Winners, Will You Be Complicit?" In his column, German writer Daniel Kehlmann exhorted Oscar stars to lash out against Donald Trump. He whined that last year’s event was "profoundly disheartening" because the participants’ attacks on the administration were "muted," unlike Hollywood’s "open defiance" during Trump’s first term.

JIMMY KIMMEL'S TRUMP, MELANIA DIGS AT OSCARS 'FELL FLAT' WITH CRITICS

His piece, which assumes (as many Oscar participants evidently do) that the job of movie stars is not to entertain us and make profitable films but rather to educate us, neatly sums up why so many people........

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