Madonna on Donald Trump’s Inauguration: ‘We Can Only Go Up From Here’

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Madonna said Thursday that the United States has “gone as low as we can go” with the election of Donald Trump.

“He’s actually doing us a great service, because we have gone as low as we can go,” Madonna said Thursday, speaking at a Brooklyn event about art and protest on the eve of Trump’s inauguration, according to Billboard. “We can only go up from here, so what are we going to do? We have two choices, destruction and creation. I chose creation.”

The pop icon supported Hillary Clinton for president and was a vocal critic of Trump during his campaign.

“It’s really important to make a stand and speak my mind about the importance of women and women empowering themselves and believing in themselves and understanding their worth,” she said in an interview with Billboard after Election Day.

She echoed that sentiment at Thursday’s event, tying her political beliefs to feminism.

“I believe that women have the right to be treated with the same human rights as men,” she said, according to Billboard. “I feel like we are still very far behind.”

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Write to Katie Reilly at Katie.Reilly@time.com