Celebrity Rage Against Trump’s Twitter Return Speaks Volumes About Hollywood's Problems

If Donald Trump's return to Twitter is any indication, historians will not look back fondly at Hollywood in the early part of the 21st century.

The industry turned its back on right-leaning artists, creating an unofficial blacklist similar in spirit to the 1950s model spearheaded by Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

Tinsel Town is similarly on the wrong side of history when it comes to free speech. For every John Cleese or Dave Chappelle taking on censorship there are hundreds more taking a knee rather than defending artistic expression.

Some stars are actively against the concept, alas. We can see it with President Donald Trump’s Twitter account revival.

The social media giant banned Trump from its platform early in 2021 after it claimed his tweets helped spark the Jan. 6 riots and, in theory, could instigate more mayhem.

For what it’s worth, here are two of Trump’s final tweets before his digital banishment.

Celebrities cheered Trump’s removal from not just Twitter but Facebook, SnapChat, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch. That included Chrissy Teigen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jameela Jamil, Mark Ruffalo, Mark Hamill and Sacha Baron Cohen, among others.

Hollywood Up In Arms After Twitter Reinstates Trump

The “Borat” creator wasn’t satisfied with Trump's Twitter removal. He demanded YouTube immediately follow that platform's lead.

"Virtually every social media company has removed Trump ... EXCEPT YouTube … Trump's YouTube channel is STILL showing videos of his election lies to MILLIONS of people!"

Now, celebrities are raging against Trump’s possible return to Twitter under Elon Musk’s rule. Trump hasn’t officially tweeted anything since his ban reversal. For now, he can be found exclusively on his Truth Social platform.

That didn’t satisfy stars like Rob Reiner, Mia Farrow, John Cusack, Bette Midler, Josh Gad, John Leguizamo and more. They went to, where else, Twitter to share their anger at Trump’s return.

President Donald Trump and actress Bette Midler. (Getty Images)

Comedy director Judd Apatow of "Knocked Up" fame, whose bread and butter is creative expression, shared Fake News with his anti-Trump musings.

Why does @elonmusk think a poll determines if Trump is on the platform and not a review of Trump’s actions? This isn’t American Idol. People died as a result of his actions on January 6.

Reality check: The only person to die at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 was Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed Trump supporter shot by Capitol police.

Others simply hate Musk for attempting to bring more voices, more balance, to an overtly left-leaning platform.

Rocker Jack White deleted his Twitter account and shared why via Instagram.

“So you gave trump his twitter platform back. Absolutely disgusting, Elon. That is officially an a**hole move,” 

Fellow rocker Trent Reznor slammed Musk’s Twitter as an “embarrassment” and nixed his account. Others have either done the same or threatened to, including Whoopi Goldberg, Debra Messing, “Bill & Ted” star Alex Winter and model Gigi Hadid.

More Voices, Not Less, Is What The World Needs

This isn’t a random sampling of stars. These comments represent the artistic community in 2022, a group that wants less voices, not more.

Don’t they understand there are far worse people still on the platform, like Rev. Louis Farrakhan? Can’t they see that speech suppression rarely stops with a single individual? Love or loathe conspiracy monger Alex Jones. Once he disappeared from Big Tech platforms those bodies started looking for other voices to silence.

And they’ve been busy in the past few years.

Hollywood doesn’t care. They’d rather see Trump silenced than grasp the big picture. Suppressing speech isn’t the answer. More voices, not less, as Andrew Breitbart once said. Seeing artists demand the latter is nauseating.

Someday, when Hollywood makes movies about this period in time, they'll have to cast themselves as the bogeymen.