Bret Easton Ellis under fire after 'asinine' interview about Donald Trump and Me Too

Ellis insists there has been an 'overreaction' to Donald Trump's presidency – one that can be 'solved with voting him out of office'

Brett Easton Ellis attends the opening night of 'American Psycho' on Broadway at Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on 21 April, 2016 in New York City. ((Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images))

Bret Easton Ellis has come under fire for an “asinine” interview in which he lays out his views on Donald Trump’s presidency and the Me Too movement.

The author spoke with New Yorker staff writer Isaac Chotiner for an interview published on Thursday.

Ellis, the author of the forthcoming memoir White (the aim of which, according to a recent Book Forum review, appears to be “to offend young, progressive readers while giving everyone else the delight of watching”), is pressed on several topics in the Q&A, including racism, sexual assault, and some of Mr Trump’s past remarks.

On Mr Trump, Ellis insists there has been an “overreaction” to his election, telling Chotiner: “It’s not just the left. There seems to have been this hysterical overreaction that can be solved with voting him out of office.”

Ellis and Chotiner also go back and forth on whether Mr Trump has expressed racist views, with Ellis telling the journalist: ”I don’t know if he does think racist things so regularly” and, when asked about the birtherism movement against Barack Obama: ”I do think birtherism was racist and the Tea Party was an abomination.”

On the Me Too movement, Ellis references former Vice President Joe Biden, who faced allegations that he made women uncomfortable through physical contact.

“I think what happened this week, with Joe Biden, has really alienated my boyfriend from his party, in a way,” Ellis says. ”My boyfriend was extremely upset about how the media was treating Joe Biden and how they were putting that under the umbrella of #MeToo. That can happen, and I think we can all agree on that.”

Readers have shared their reactions on Twitter after reading the New Yorker piece, praising Chotiner’s questions and deriding Ellis’s answers.

“Isaac Chotiner, after spending an entire interview trying to get a deflecting, asinine Bret Easton Ellis to explain the point of his latest book, casually delivers a killshot,” one person wrote next to an excerpt of the interview.

“This article on Bret Easton Ellis who has so many views that he can’t seem to justify or even remember is just *chef’s kiss*,” another person tweeted.

Ellis, a frequent Twitter user, has so far not commented on the interview on the platform.