MOST WANTED

Trump Nemesis Reveals MAGA’s Disturbing ‘Obsession’ With Her

The comedian told “Obsessed: The Podcast” that she even needs extra security ahead of the midterms.

Kathy Griffin, 65, is incredulous that high-profile MAGA groupies still hound her.

“You would be amazed at how many MAGA people are still obsessed with me,” Griffin, who is currently touring her stand-up show, “New Face, New Tour,” told Obsessed: The Podcast. “I am still a Fox News darling.”

Watch the full interview with Kathy Griffin on YouTube:

MAGA’s Griffin addiction began almost a decade ago and has remained steadfast. On May 30, 2017, a photographer leaked an image to TMZ depicting Griffin staring directly at the camera. A Donald Trump mask covered in ketchup dangled from her right hand, supposed to look like the president’s severed, bloodied head.

For Griffin, that was the beginning of what MAGA hoped was her end.

“Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself,” Trump tweeted at the time. “My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!”

The comedian received millions of death threats and a bottomless barrage of digital hate. The FBI, which she said came to her home twice a week in the direct aftermath, added her to the no-fly list, and the Department of Justice investigated her on the grounds of conspiracy to assassinate the president.

Her own mother called her hysterical, thinking that her daughter had joined al Qaeda. Hollywood all but abandoned Griffin for years, forcing her to claw her way back into the industry from the outside. The fallout led to a diagnosis of Complex PTSD and severe panic attacks.

“Apparently there were whole meetings with Donald and Kushner and Don Jr. and Dan Scavino on how to ruin me for good,” Griffin said. “They did make it so I could not work for seven years. I did not have any income for seven years. And luckily I’m good with money, so I had all mine saved up, but to not work and not do what I do, which is try to make people laugh as much as possible, really took a toll on my brain.”

Hollywood may have abandoned Griffin, but she still performed abroad. Her shows in cities like Singapore and Reykjavik drew massive audiences, and in 2023, Griffin’s U.S. comedy career finally resumed with shows in Las Vegas. To her surprise, “ticket sales were amazing,” she said.

“People really showed up. I think a lot of people showed up not because they’re the biggest fans, but the point of saying, ‘This shouldn’t happen to American comedians. We have a Constitution that covers exactly what she did,” Griffin continued. “I had already cleared that photo with my lawyers prior to posting it. A lot of people didn’t know that. But that’s how I know that First Amendment back and forth. I may not know the other ones, but I know that first one back and forth.”

Now, in the months leading up to high-stakes midterm elections, Griffin said she’s experiencing a resurgence of the MAGA hate that never fully dissipated.

“Can you believe it? What am I doing, Kathy Griffin, where I have to have security like you wouldn’t even believe, everywhere I go, because the midterms are coming up and that reminds the MAGA people of the Trump head picture?” she said. “That all comes at me, and yet I still have to get the message out there. There’s more of us than them.”

Halfway into Trump’s second presidency, Griffin said the photo no longer carries the same cultural connotations. Governor Gavin Newsom even told her that if she released the picture now, “you’d be a hero,” she said.

“I couldn’t believe an elected official said that, much less a governor, Griffin added. “I was so grateful he said that, because, at least the first three years, every interview was ‘You’re a terrorist, American troops are gonna be beheaded in your name, you’re the face of ISIS. People are going to behead Americans and say, ‘This is for you, Kathy Griffin.’”

Griffin said she’ll probably never appear on television or in a movie again, and she still deals with “major panic attacks” and complex post-traumatic stress disorder. She even had to drop one of her law firms “because they bent the knee to Trump,” she said. Still, Griffin is slowly reaffirming her place in the cultural zeitgeist of American comedy.

“It was years of aggressive interviews I should have just hung up on,” she said. “But I was determined, so determined, to come back at any level, biting and scratching.”

She added, “I’m all in on this resistance thing.”

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Dana Herrnstadt Editorial Intern, Obsessed

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