Pedro Almodóvar Says Trump Will Go Down as ‘The Greatest Mistake of Our Time’

Pedro Almodóvar was on the fence about whether he should even come to the United States to accept his Chaplin Award in light of the actions the Trump administration has taken. The filmmaker behind “Talk to Her” and “The Room Next Door” used his victory as a chance to speak out against the sitting U.S. president during the Lincoln Center’s Annual Gala on Monday night.

“I doubted if it was appropriate to come to a country ruled by a narcissistic authority, who doesn’t respect human rights,” Almodóvar said during his acceptance speech. “Trump and his friends, millionaires and oligarchs, can not convince us that the reality we are seeing with our own eyes is the opposite of what we are living, however much he may twist the words, claiming that they mean the opposite of what they do. Immigrants are not criminals. It was Russia that invaded Ukraine. Zelensky is not a dictator, Putin is.”

The director and screenwriter also said that Hunter Schafer is a woman “even if her passport says she is male.” Almodóvar then dedicated his award to Schafer, the “thousands of deportees in recent weeks” and Harvard University before addressing Trump directly.

“Mr. Trump, I’m talking to you, and I hope that you hear what I’m going to say to you. You will go down in history as the greatest mistake of our time. Your naiveté is only comparable to your violence. You will go down in history as one of the greatest damages to humanity,” Almodóvar said. “You will go down in history as a catastrophe.”

Renamed after the beloved and iconic comedic actor and filmmaker, the Chaplin Award began in 1972 and honors some of the film industry’s most notable talents. Previous recipients of the award have included Jeff Bridges, Viola Davis, Morgan Freeman and Meryl Streep.

The post Pedro Almodóvar Says Trump Will Go Down as ‘The Greatest Mistake of Our Time’ appeared first on TheWrap.