Lin-Manuel Miranda slams Trump over Puerto Rico tweets: “You’re going straight to hell.”

Lin-Manuel Miranda Slams Trump Over Puerto Rico Tweets: “You’re Going Straight to Hell”

Lin-Manuel Miranda Slams Trump Over Puerto Rico Tweets: “You’re Going Straight to Hell”

The Slatest has moved! You can find new stories here.
The Slatest
Your News Companion
Sept. 30 2017 6:40 PM

Lin-Manuel Miranda Slams Trump Over Puerto Rico: “You’re Going Straight to Hell”

Ham4Ham-Featuring-LinManuel-Miranda
Lin-Manuel Miranda speaks during the #Ham4Ham featuring Lin-Manuel Miranda at the Pantages Theater on August 16, 2017 in Hollywood, California.

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

President Donald Trump was on the receiving end of lots of criticism on Saturday after he went on a Twitter rant against Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital of San Juan. Trump said the mayor had been told by Democrats “that you must be nasty to Trump” and then criticized leaders in Puerto Rico who “want everything to be done for them.” Many were flabbergasted and did not hide their feelings.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, who has family in Puerto Rico, was one of the harshest, telling Trump he would be “going straight to hell.  No long lines for you. Someone will say, ‘Right this way, sir.’ They'll clear a path.” The Hamilton creator did not stop there, following up with another tweet in which he defended the San Juan mayor: “She has been working 24/7. You have been golfing.” And to top it all off, he wondered whether the president sent his tweet “from the first hole, 18th hole, or the club?” And then he added: “You’re a congenital liar.”

Advertisement

The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright may have been the most direct but he was hardly the only celebrity to blast Trump for somehow finding it appropriate to play politics with a national tragedy.

Alec Baldwin also took to Twitter to call for Trump’s impeachment and a wish: “When Trump is convicted, I hope he serves his time in a prison in Puerto Rico…”

Comedian Cristela Alonzo wondered “how awful are you as a person that you don’t help dying people.” She continued on with a second tweet: “People from this admin can fly a private plane to go to McDonalds but can’t get one to PR? You didn’t drain the swamp; you flooded it.”

George Takei said that it takes a crisis to put a person’s true character on display. “Donald has shown his true self: narcissistic, petty, lacking in empathy, and failing to lead,” he wrote.

Advertisement

Author Stephen King seemed amazed at how the president could turn anything and make it about himself. “His picture should be next to NARCISSIST in the dictionary,” King wrote.

Luis Fonsi of Despacito fame also blasted Trump: “You’re supposed to be our leader...LEAD.”

Questlove, meanwhile, kept things simple, and didn’t even mention Trump by name but there was little doubt who he was referring to when he tweeted out a single word: “ASSHOLE.”

Daniel Politi has been contributing to Slate since 2004 and wrote the Today’s Papers column from 2006 to 2009. Follow him on Twitter.