Trump accuses Spike Lee of 'racist hit' in Oscars speech

U.S. President Donald Trump has accused filmmaker Spike Lee of racism following the latter’s acceptance speech at the 2019 Academy Awards.

In an early morning tweet Monday, Trump accused Lee of making a “racist hit on your President, who has done more for African Americans… than almost any other Pres!”

At the Oscars Sunday, Lee clinched a best adapted screenplay award for directing the film “BlacKkKlansman,” which tells the story of how an African American police officer infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan; a prominent white supremacist hate group.

“Four hundred years (ago), our ancestors were stolen from mother Africa and brought to Jamestown, Virginia, enslaved,” Lee, who is African American, said in a speech that also mentioned the “genocide” of Native Americans. “Before the world tonight, I give praise to our ancestors who helped build this country.”

Lee, who had also been nominated for best picture and best director, also touched on the 2020 U.S. presidential election as he read from his notes.

“Let’s all mobilize,” he added. “Let’s all be on the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love versus hate. Let’s do the right thing!”

It is unclear exactly what part of Lee’s speech Trump interpreted as “racist.”

For his part, Trump has repeatedly come under fire for failing to denounce white supremacy.

For example, after a man drove a car into a group of people protesting an Aug. 2017 alt-right gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one person and injuring more than two dozen others, Trump famously said, “I think there is blame on both sides” and that there “were very fine people, on both sides.”

Trump has also publicly made disparaging comments about Black people, Muslims and Latin Americans.

In his tweet, Trump even criticized Lee’s delivery.

“Be nice if Spike Lee could read his notes, or better yet not have to use notes at all,” Trump wrote.

Trump, however, repeatedly mispronounces words in his public addresses.

Be nice if Spike Lee could read his notes, or better yet not have to use notes at all, when doing his racist hit on your President, who has done more for African Americans (Criminal Justice Reform, Lowest Unemployment numbers in History, Tax Cuts,etc.) than almost any other Pres!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2019