Quick Links
Summary
- Ellen DeGeneres banned ex-POTUS Donald Trump from her show due to political differences and personal beliefs.
- Ellen's cozy relationship with Trump turned sour due to her outspoken criticism and views on his presidency.
- Ellen received backlash for sending an ostentatious gift to Trump, leading to further scrutiny of her actions and alliances.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show might not have flaunted a political motif, but its host didn't shy away from getting a tad political, especially when it came to her guest roster. Despite welcoming multiple sitting and retired US presidents on her show, DeGeneres remained firm about not inviting ex-POTUS Donald Trump; at least not after he won his 2016 presidential bid.
The embattled talk show host didn’t shy away from expressing her less-than-stellar view of the former US president either, going as far as declaring an outright campaign against him at one point. However, it seems there was a time when Ellen had a rather cozy relationship with Trump, even going as far as sending him an outrageously lavish gift after the birth of his son, Barron William Trump.
In this article, we'll delve into Ellen's intriguing connection with the ex-POTUS, uncovering the extravagantly lavish gift she sent him, why she ended up getting slammed for the lavish gift nearly a decade later, and why she ultimately decided to ban the former president from her show.
Ellen DeGeneres Splurged On A Lavish Gift For Donald Trump Before Banning Him From Her Show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show may have wrapped amid a string of toxic workplace allegations, but there was a time when both the show and its namesake host boasted a nearly spotless record. With an impressive 63 Daytime Emmy wins and an astonishing 4.2+ million daily viewers per episode, the show reigned supreme in the daytime talk show realm for years before its controversial end.
Given its immense popularity, it’s no wonder Ellen seemingly had her pick of big-name celebrities to invite on the show. However, there were a few A-listers even Ellen wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole, one of them being ex-POTUS Donald Trump.
But before things turned sour, the former talk show host and the ex-POTUS had a rather cozy relationship. According to news reports from the mid-2000s, Ellen even gifted Trump a lavish gold-encrusted stroller, complete with its very own chandelier, after the birth of his son, Barron William Trump.
According to a People report from 2006, Barron Trump received plenty of gifts from Trump’s circle of wealthy friends and acquaintances, but DeGeneres’s gift was by far the most ostentatious.
"It's fun," ex-FLOTUS Melania Trump said of the lavish gift at the time. "It makes you laugh."
Ellen's extravagant gift sparked intense controversy in 2019 when snapshots of her cozying up to former US President George W. Bush at a Dallas Cowboys game surfaced online. Fans were outraged that Ellen, a staunch advocate of LGBTQ+ rights, was friends with Bush, who had made some rather contentious policy decisions regarding LGBTQ+ rights during his tenure.
The controversy intensified as internet sleuths uncovered a forgotten People article discussing Ellen’s extravagant gift to the Trump family. For some fans, the resurfaced news report was rather confusing, given Ellen’s rather vocal criticism of the ex-POTUS at the time
“I thought she was very anti trump...refusing to have him on the show and whatnot. Did that only start when he got elected?,” one Redditor weighed in.
Other fans took issue with the sheer ostentatiousness of the gift.
“This picture looks like something out of the old National Lampoon, absurd. People who would actually pose with this silly shit for the public are deeply damaged inside, it’s sad and says a lot about the Trumps. Hopefully Ellen was being ironic, but after hanging out with War Criminal Bush it’s doubtful,” yet another outraged Redditor remarked.
“I thought she was all about giving hard-working poor people a chance. She could have given things to 10 single moms and dads but instead she gave this to a family that is already drowning in money,” yet another weighed in.
It remains unclear whether Ellen and Trump were friends before she sent him the ostentatious stroller, as the former talk show host made a point of distancing herself from him during his presidential tenure.
She said of her relationship with the ex-POTUS in a 2017 interview with Matt Lauer:
“I mean, I know him from Celebrity Apprentice because when we first started the show… we filmed something with him. I flew in his helicopter and did a bit with him. So I knew him then. I have not spoken to him since he he’s run for president or become president.”
However, it is worth noting that Trump had appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show a total of five times before his presidential win, making his last appearance in 2007, a year after Ellen sent him the extravagant gift.
Why Ellen DeGeneres Banned Donald Trump From Her Show
It’s anyone’s guess just how cozy Donald Trump and Ellen DeGeneres were before his 2016 presidential bid. However, by the time the mid-2010s rolled on, the duo’s relationship had soured so severely that Ellen openly declared that she had no interest in having the then-president on her show.
She said of the ex-POTUS in her May 2017 interview with former Today show host Matt Lauer:
“I’m not gonna change his mind… He’s against everything I stand for… We need to look at someone else who looks different than us and believes in something that we don’t believe in and still accept them, and still let them have their rights.”
The embattled talk show host doubled down on her stance in a separate interview with Megyn Kelly, delving even further into all the reasons she’d decided to ban the former president from her show.
She said at the time:
"I would not have him on my show. He is who he is and he has enough attention. He has his Twitter account and he has ways to get his message across. There is nothing I’m going to say to him that’s going to change him, and I don’t want to give him a platform, because it validates him.”
She continued:
"For me to have someone on the show, I have to at least admire them in some way. And I can’t have someone that I feel is not only dangerous for the country—and for me personally as a gay woman—but to the world. He’s dividing all of us…. I just don’t want him on the show."
DeGeneres kicked things up a notch toward the end of Trump's presidential tenure, announcing that she would be throwing her weight behind a Democratic presidential candidate, presumably to undercut the ex-POTUS's chances of getting re-elected.
She told Variety of her decision at the time:
“I’m political but I’m not the kind of person that’s going to talk about politics in standup. But I definitely think that we need a change, and we’ll figure out who that person is. I’m going to wait and see who ends up getting everybody’s vote and we’ll see who I get behind… I kind of have a candidate but I’m just going to wait.”
