Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney—who recently starred on Broadway in Six—took to TikTok to criticize President Donald Trump after he attacked her in a cruel joke at the White House Correspondents' Association (WCHA) dinner.
CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins received an award celebrating her journalistic achievements thus far from the WHCA; the award was presented to her by her CNN colleague Wolf Blitzer.
Trump, taking the stage afterward, congratulated Collins but cast doubt on the award she had just won and made a transphobic joke about Collins that referenced Mulvaney's controversial Bud Light sponsorship:
"I thought she had really made it big with a major new sponsorship but then I informed her that it wasn't her on the Bud Light can. It was Dylan Mulvaney. Dylan Mulvaney cost $35 billion in market cap. That was the worst commercial ever made, for those few people who want to hear that."
"Most people wouldn't care but I would. I wouldn't want to hire Dylan anytime soon. Think of it, they hired Dylan Mulvaney and their market cap has gone down by $35 billion. Who wrote that commercial?"
You can hear what Trump said in the video below.
Trump's remarks were openly transphobic.
Conservatives generated significant controversy for their response to Bud Light's collaboration with Mulvaney. Mulvaney, who gained fame on TikTok for her "Day 365 Of Girlhood" video series, was sent a personalized can of Bud Light with her face on it to commemorate a year since she began her gender transition.
However, the partnership angered bigoted social media users, who quickly called for a boycott of the brand and its parent company, Anheuser-Busch.
The boycott's impact was evident as Modelo Especial replaced Bud Light as the top beer brand in the United States. Moreover, Bud Light sales saw a significant decrease of nearly 28 percent in the last week of June 2023 compared to the same period the previous year.
Mulvaney responded shortly afterward in a video on TikTok, saying:
“My name is Dylan Mulvaney and the president said my name four times in his speech on Friday night. I’m incredibly honored to be compared to her in any way and I hope that she continues doing all the great work." ...
“It seems to me that I might be the one that got away for these men, like I am permanently burned into their retinas, I am microchipped into their minds. Being publicly mocked and criticized by this administration is actually, like, the greatest compliment of all because it puts me in the company of some of the most brilliant, empathetic people in our world today.”
“But I do still wonder, why is it so important to them that I don’t find success? What is it that I have that they don’t? Oh my God… freedom! I am free in a way that they will never have the privilege to experience, and they want to use their power to take away my freedom."
"But what they don’t understand is my freedom has zero contingency on what they can provide for me, because my freedom is fully dependent on the moment that I acknowledged my real, authentic self, and every day since. And sharing that with the world, it’s just icing on the cake."
"But they don’t want me to be able to share that, because it would mean young people realizing that if someone like me can be themselves and find success and freedom, then they can find success and freedom for themselves, too.”
She later added:
“When they try to judge you for your support of us, take that as the greatest compliment. Ladies, when they tell you that you look like a trans woman, wear it like a medal."
"Men, when they tell you that being attracted to trans women makes you gay, I want you to Hilary Duff PSA their a** so hard that they don’t even know what just happened. And to the dolls, let’s have each other’s back.”
“To the president, thank you for reminding me that I am more powerful than I even knew. And to quote my favorite recording artist Shea Diamond: I am America.”
You can hear what Mulvaney said in the video below.
People loved Mulvaney's response.
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Mulvaney is an absolute class act.
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