Donald Trump has suggested the calamitous end to the 2017 Oscars, where a mix-up with the awards envelope meant the team behind La La Land were told they had won best picture even though Moonlight won, was due to the award organizers being “focused so hard on politics”.

The president, who vowed not to watch the ceremony, was constantly referenced throughout the evening by the show’s host Jimmy Kimmel, who tweeted at him in the middle of the ceremony.

The late-night host also made fun of Trump’s fake news comments and his criticism of Meryl Streep for being overrated, before encouraging speeches that Trump “will tweet about in all caps during his 5am bowel movement tomorrow”. Trump didn’t respond on Twitter however, and instead saved his comments for an exclusive interview with rightwing news outlet Breitbart News.



“I think they were focused so hard on politics that they didn’t get their act together at the end,” Trump said from the Oval Office.

“It was a little sad. It took away from the glamour of the Oscars. It didn’t feel like a very glamorous evening. I’ve been to the Oscars. There was something very special missing, and then to end that way was sad.”

The biggest mix-up in Oscars history was due to the wrong envelope being handed to Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, who were giving out the award for best picture. On Monday PricewaterhouseCooper, the accounting firm that is responsible for the vote-counting at the Oscars, attributed the mistake to human error.



One of the firm’s partners, Brian Cullinan, was identified as the man behind the envelope mix-up. Tim Ryan, the firm’s US chairman and senior partner, told Variety that Cullinan had mistakenly used a “backup” envelope for the best actress award which had just been given to La La Land actor Emma Stone, and created the confusion.

“He feels very, very terrible and horrible. He is very upset about this mistake. And it is also my mistake, our mistake, and we all feel very bad,” Ryan said. “We clearly made a mistake and once the mistake was made we corrected it and owned up to it.”