Donald Trump’s Joan Rivers remarks raise eyebrows

Donald Trump’s reported remarks about Joan Rivers are causing controversy online.

According to Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh, the former president claimed that the late comedian voted for him in 2016—despite passing away in 2014.

Setoodeh interviewed Trump in November for Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass. The book, which was released on Wednesday, explores the business mogul’s time hosting the reality show The Apprentice.

Author who interviewed Trump six times: There were some cognitive questions… he would from time to time become confused. He confidently told me that Joan Rivers voted for him when he ran for President and she died 2014. pic.twitter.com/QKf7y8dWEv

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 19, 2024

Rivers won Season 2 of the star-studded spin-off show, Celebrity Apprentice, in 2009. Trump mentions Rivers in the book, suggesting the Daytime Emmy winner “might have been a Republican.”

“I know one thing: she voted for me, according to what she said,” Trump claimed in Apprentice in Wonderland.

However, Rivers died during a routine surgery in 2014, at the age of 81. Trump wasn’t elected until November 2016.

During an appearance on CNN‘s The Source on Wednesday, Setoodeh said he’d “interviewed Trump more than any other journalist since he’d left the White House.”

Setoodeh interviewed the Republican politician six times, beginning in May 2021. He described the process as “challenging,” calling the 78-year-old’s recollections as “meandering and confusing.”

“He’s goes from one story to the next, he struggles with the chronology of events,” Setoodeh told host Kaitlan Collins. “He seems very upset that he wasn’t respected by certain celebrities in the White House, and then he’d go to a story about The Apprentice.”

“There were some cognitive questions about where he was and what he was thinking,” Setoodeh continued. “He would from time to time become confused.”

Collins asked Setoodeh about the section on Rivers, to which he replied: “He definitely told me and declared that Rivers voted for him when he ran for president.

“Joan Rivers died in 2014, so she would not have been able to vote for Donald Trump.”

Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, told Newsweek: “This is nothing more than Fake News being peddled by those who suffer from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Biden and his loser cronies should stop using cheap fakes to gaslight the American people.”

A snippet of the interview was shared to X, formerly Twitter, by user @Acyn, where it received over 306,000 views.

Many users felt that Rivers would be upset with the suggestion she voted for him.

“He thinks Joan Rivers would vote for him? Oh please!” commented @csb2504.

“I’m surprised Joan Rivers didn’t come back from the dead to dispute that foul slur,” said @LawAndPolitics3.

“Many people say that Joan River’s ghost supports Trump. Many people. Believe me,” joked Joel Klebanoff.

“Joan Rivers isn’t here to defend herself! She would tell him ‘get [lost] loser,'” wrote Constance Morrison.

During an interview in 2014, Joan Rivers’ daughter, Melissa Rivers, said the pair were “fiscally conservative” but “socially liberal.”

The comedy legend voted for Barack Obama in 2008—but supposedly regretted the decision—and reportedly opted for the politician or party that best represented her values at the time.

Rivers’ humor may have been controversial—she once joked that Barack Obama was gay and his wife Michelle was a “t*****”—but she was also a vocal supporter for the LGBTQ community.

The Fashion Police host appeared in a video for the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ civil rights organization, in 2011, advocating for marriage equality, and would often express her love for the LGBTQ community.

As Trump has vowed to roll back the rights of LGBTQ people if he’s re-elected in November—such as banning gender affirming care for minors and terminating diversity and inclusion programs—along with mocking transgender athletes on the campaign trail, it’s unlikely the pair would have seen eye to eye on the matter.