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Oprah Winfrey Admits She Was Confused AF When Donald Trump Called Her “Very Insecure”
She was baffled, too. During a Thursday, Feb. 22, appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Oprah Winfrey reacted to President Donald Trump calling her “very insecure” on Twitter earlier this month. According to the media mogul, 64, she was legitimately puzzled by Trump’s assessment.
“I woke up and I just thought — I don’t like giving negativity power,” the A Wrinkle in Time actress — who interviewed 14 pro- and anti-Trump voters from Grand Rapids, MI, on a recent 60 Minutes segment — said as she threw her arms in the air and then shrugged. “So I just thought, ‘What?'”
Not long after the segment aired on Sunday, Trump, 71, took to Twitter to sound off on Oprah’s performance. “Just watched a very insecure Oprah Winfrey, who at one point I knew very well, interview a panel of people on 60 Minutes,” the ex-Celebrity Apprentice star wrote. “The questions were biased and slanted, the facts incorrect.”
Trump also acknowledged prior speculation that Oprah might run for president in 2020 after she delivered a moving, politically charged speech at the 2018 Golden Globes — a rumor she has repeatedly shut down. “Hope Oprah runs so she can be exposed and defeated just like all of the others!” the real estate tycoon concluded.
Oprah told host Ellen DeGeneres that she did consider Trump’s opinion for a moment — and closely examined her 60 Minutes segment to see if there was any truth to his remarks. “I went back and looked at every tape, I called the producers. Because what actually happened was when you do 60 Minutes, you sit in a room with at least seven other people who critique the piece before you air it, before you do the introduction to it, and then they give you the critique,” she explained. “So, they critique every word and is this fair — you have this whole panel of people looking at whether it was fair.”
The talk show queen went on to say that before the segment aired, she made a revision to ensure more impartiality. “I had actually, the first time I saw it, I said there’s something missing here from the conversation,” she revealed. “When I had asked the question of ‘Do you think, do you care about what other people think about America?’ and they only used the Democratic side. And I said, I remembered the guy Matt had said, ‘No, we’re the only people that are worried what other countries are thinking of us.’ And I said, ‘I think you should go back and put that in because it makes it more balanced.'”
At the end of the day, Oprah believes she conveyed nonpartisanship. “I was working very hard to do the opposite of what I was hate-tweeted about so it’s OK,” she said, assuring Ellen that she isn’t losing any sleep over Trump’s criticism.
