CULTURE

Donald Trump and Bette Midler Are Feuding, but the Actress Managed to Perfectly Shut Him Down

The president will have a hard time replying to this one.

June 5, 2019

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Even meeting the British Royals isn’t going to keep President Trump from his late-night Twitter habits. Indeed, last night Trump stayed up late to enter into a Twitter feud with Bette Midler.

While he was in London to meet with Queen Elizabeth II, Trump went onto Twitter at 1:30 a.m. local time to call out Midler, who had recently shared a meme about Trump that the president did not like. A couple of days ago, Midler apologized for tweeting an old photo of Trump with the quote “If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They love anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.” She added her own caption to the post: “He certainly knew his crowd.”

But anyone who spent much time on Twitter during the 2016 election cycle might be aware that Trump never said those words—at least publicly. So Midler responsibly announced to her followers that it was fake news, sharing a link to a fact-checking website and writing, “I apologize; this quote turns out to be a fake from way back in ‘15-16. Don’t know how I missed it, but it sounds SO much like him that I believed it was true!”

Apparently that apology didn’t sit well with the president, because shortly after she issued it Trump resorted to name-calling. “Washed up psycho @BetteMidler was forced to apologize for a statement she attributed to me that turned out to be totally fabricated by her in order to make ‘your great president’ look really bad,” he wrote. “She got caught, just like the Fake News Media gets caught. A sick scammer!”

This isn’t the first time Trump has come for Midler on Twitter. Back in 2012, he tweeted, “While @BetteMidler is an extremely unattractive woman, I refuse to say that because I always insist on being politically correct.” Plus, in 2014, he took aim at Midler’s performance of “Wind Beneath My Wings” for the Oscars ”In Memoriam,” tweeting that it “sucked.”

But Midler had the final word. After Trump’s latest attack, she delivered the perfect mic drop, writing, “I want to thank everyone who came to my defense last night during my personal Battle of the Bulge with he who must not be named. Your wit and good nature really lifted my spirits; as a newly washed up psycho, I am very grateful for your thoughts and prayers.”