War footing? It felt like it.

Mr. Trump’s supporters, who made #BoycottGoldenGlobes trend on Twitter earlier on Sunday, either anticipating critical comments or annoyed that some Hollywood stars have been outspoken in their horror at his election, responded with negative comments. “Dear Meryl Streep. We voted AGAINST you Too!” one woman wrote on Twitter.

Mr. Trump, speaking by phone to The New York Times early Monday morning, dismissed Ms. Streep as “a Hillary lover,” noting that she spoke at the Democratic National Convention last summer on behalf of Mrs. Clinton. Later, in a series of tweets, Mr. Trump called Ms. Streep “one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood” and “a Hillary flunky who lost big.”

Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to Mr. Trump, continued the counterattack on Fox News Monday. She criticized Ms. Streep for “inciting people’s worst instincts” and poked fun at celebrities “talking about how vilified poor Hollywood is” while wearing “their gazillion-dollar gowns.”

She added of Ms. Streep: “She sounds like 2014. The election is over. She lost.”

Those counterattacks came just hours before the news that Mr. Kushner would become a White House adviser to his father-in-law, which raises questions about nepotism and possible conflicts of interest. Mr. Trump has a habit of engaging in side fights when bigger controversy looms, though he said he had been unaware of Ms. Streep’s remarks until a reporter from The Times called him early Monday morning.

With her deep international fan base, Ms. Streep faced little risk in giving a swift nudge to Hollywood and any like-minded artists watching the telecast. It is too early to say how the entertainment industry might channel its outrage at Mr. Trump’s election or whether a cultural war is truly at hand, as occurred in the 1980s when politicians were trying to cut funding to artists whose work they found objectionable.

Image “She challenged us to take action in a way where I was like, ‘This is what Hollywood kind of should be,’” the actress Issa Rae said of Ms. Streep. Credit... Paul Buck/European Pressphoto Agency

The perception of Hollywood as one of the country’s most prominent liberal bubbles has been long established. But from a business perspective, television networks and movie studios can little afford to alienate any audience as they contend with pressures that include declining DVD sales, competition from streaming services and wildly uneven box office results. At the glittering Globes after-parties, several studio executives privately applauded Ms. Streep but refused to join her in speaking publicly, citing business interests. Several industry executives expressed confusion about why she would use her speech to convey a message that seemed predictable: a Hollywood star denouncing Mr. Trump.