See John Legend Condemn Trump’s Muslim Ban in PGA Awards Speech
Amid protests at airports around the country, John Legend condemned President Donald Trump‘s Muslim ban during the singer’s speech Saturday at the Producers Guild of America awards in Los Angeles.
“Our vision of America is directly antithetical to that of President Trump,” Legend said. “I want to specifically tonight reject his vision and affirm that America has to be better than that.”
Legend attended the PGA Awards in order to present La La Land, which features Legend in an acting role. However, the singer went off-script to voice his displeasure about Trump’s executive order, The Hollywood Reporter writes.
“Los Angeles is the home of so many immigrants, so many creative people, so many dreamers,” Legend said. “Our America is big, it is free, and it is open to dreamers of all races, all countries, all religions.”
Legend added that he and wife Chrissy Teigen were conflicted about attending the PGA Awards while protestors flocked to airports like LAX and JFK to fight the Muslim ban. However, after donating money to the ACLU and other groups resisting Trump, Legend decided to attend in order to spread his message of change to a roomful of powerful Hollywood producers.
Mark Burnett, the producer of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice, was booed at the gala, THR reports.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Legend discussed his concerns with a Trump presidency.
“He’s been consistent about being a racist and about a couple of other things, but he’s also been wildly inconsistent and lied a lot,” the Darkness and Light singer said. “So we truly don’t know how he’s gonna govern. We haven’t seen anyone like him before. It’s a very kind of different world now, knowing that someone’s going to possibly dismantle a lot of what Obama accomplished. I don’t know where we’re going to go.”