The list of people Donald Trump has attacked on Twitter is unusually long for any human, let alone the President of the United States. (That list is 305 people, places, and things long, according to the NYT.) Back in 2012, Kristen Stewart spent a few weeks as Trump’s tweet target after he developed a brief but disconcertingly strong obsession with her relationship with Robert Pattinson.
Robert Pattinson should not take back Kristen Stewart. She cheated on him like a dog & will do it again–just watch. He can do much better!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2012
Yup, just barely four years before an almost-majority of voters elected him President, Trump was speculating over a then-22-year-old’s love life as reported by tabloids. And bolstered by too much attention, he decided to double down the next day.
Lots of response to my Pattinson/Kristen Stewart reunion. She will cheat again–100 certain–am I ever wrong?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2012
He probably does actually believe he’s never wrong. When he is, he just changes his version of the truth.
A few days later, he still hadn’t let this go.
Everyone knows I am right that Robert Pattinson should dump Kristen Stewart. In a couple of years, he will thank me. Be smart, Robert.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2012
Why did Trump care so much about the stars of Twilight? Why was he so invested, and so sure he knew what was best for them? (Or, rather, for him. He doesn’t seem to have cared about Stewart at all.) We’ll never know. We’ll never know much about Trump’s motivations on much of anything, I’d guess.
But now, more than four years later, Kristen Stewart has addressed the Twitter rant. She told Variety that yes, despite not being on Twitter herself, she had noticed the tweets targeting her private relationship with Pattinson:
“He was mad at me a couple years ago, really obsessed with me a couple years ago, which is f—ing crazy.”
Some one like Stewart is definitely going to have a lot of aggressive, over-invested trolls cyber-shouting horrible things at her, much worse things than Trump said. But what’s it like when one of those trolls suddenly becomes president?
“At that point, he was just, like, a reality star. I had no reference. It wasn’t like really a thing. But in retrospect, somebody reminded me of that and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re right!'”
Whatever your feelings on politics in general, or Trump specifically, or even your feelings on Kristen Stewart, it’s hard for a lot of people to understand how so many voters were okay with supporting a man who treats young women like this. Why was a 66-year-old-man this concerned with the love life of a young movie star, to the point where he felt the need (or even just the right) to publicly tear her down, multiple times, and even compare her to a dog?
“I’ve never been the most politically charged person, but I think at this point, it’s not political. It’s f–king so humanitarian.”
We all know that when people enter into Twitter or a comments section somewhere, they can forget that the people they’re talking to are really human, and abuse can often feel easier than real conversation. But how are this many Americans okay with their president verbally abusing young women on the internet? Shouldn’t we be expecting more from this particular person? More restraint, more dignity?
Stewart, at least, knows the risk of asking these questions of Trump. As she said of the interview,
“He’s probably, like, going to tweet about this.”
Here’s hoping Trump’s aides are wrestling his phone away from him. I really want her to be wrong about that.
(via Variety, image via Shutterstock)
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