Donald Trump can’t stop inserting himself into the worldwide mourning for country music icon Dolly Parton.
Parton, who died on Tuesday at age 80, was known for her humanitarian activities and support for the LGBTQ community, but was always careful to avoid party politics.
During an interview with Glenn Beck the morning after her death, the 80-year-old president declared, “We all knew her so well. I knew her a little bit. She wasn’t a very political person… she really liked me, I will tell you!”
On Thursday evening, with grief still fresh at Parton’s death from cancer, Trump randomly shared an AI-generated image of himself with the country superstar.
The clearly fake picture sees Parton holding onto Trump’s arm, while the pair are walking along a White House colonnade. There is no caption.
Social media blew up at the mocked-up image. “What a global laughingstock you are,” Canadian activist Marlene Robertson wrote on X. “You and Dolly Parton were polar opposites. She was woke and she a humanitarian, while you are a lowlife, bottom feeding, piece of s--t.”
Another person said the post was “pitiful and embarrassing” for America, adding, “We are privy to the twisted mind of a malignant narcissist, pictures and all!”
A third wrote Trump’s AI depiction of the pair was a “pathetic attempt to steal her humanity and generosity.”
MeidasTouch editor Ron Filipkowski, meanwhile, pointed out that Trump’s aide Natalie Harp, 35, runs much of his social media.
“Creepy, yes,” he wrote of the AI image. “Even creepier when you consider that Natalie Harp found this on the internet, printed it out, showed it to him, he approved it for posting, then she posted it. And that’s what we are paying her to do all day.” Harp earns an annual public salary of $150,000.
Another X user said of the president’s post, “At this point, the White House feels less like a presidency and more like Trump’s personal fan-fiction generator.”
The MAGA reaction to Parton’s death, led by Trump, has been called out by many of the musician’s fans. The president’s daughter, Ivanka, was skewered for a tone-deaf tribute to Parton on social media, soon after her passing.
Ivanka cited Parton’s quote “I don’t criticize and condemn; I love and accept,” saying it had “resonated within me since I first heard it.”
Commenters on Ivanka’s post quickly pointed out that her hot-tempered father does not follow Parton’s view on how people should be treated, citing his history of insulting his political opponents and also female reporters.
“Your father and brothers demonstrate precisely the opposite every hour of every day,” one user wrote to the president’s daughter. Another added, “Why don’t you tell your father who degrades women every day to follow that advice?”
One user posted to Ivanka, “Dolly Parton twice declined offers of the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump’s administration. She was a stand up woman. You people are gross.”
“I don’t like to get involved in politics, because first of all, I have as many Republican fans as I do Democrats,” Parton said in a 2020 interview with USA TODAY. “I don’t want to offend anybody, I have a right to myself.”
Prior to her sister’s death, Stella Parton, 77, had reportedly lashed out at Trump.
“As a natural born citizen of the United States of America, I do not support nor do I agree with Trump or his deranged, ugly, nasty behavior,” Stella Parton wrote in a screenshot seen by Raw Story before it was deleted.
On Aug. 20, the superstar’s sister also wrote on X, “We have a pimple in the White House and the pus in Congress do nothing beneficial for the citizens of this country!”
She added, “The entire administration is a freak show every day!”
