--- title: Donald Trump Oscars: He Blames Mix-Up on 'Politics' description: President Trump blamed the Best Picture mix-up at Sunday's Academy Awards on politics. canonical: https://time.com/4684860/donald-trump-academy-awards-best-picture/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-27T21:40:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:33:44.294Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Blames Best Picture Oscar Mix-Up on Politics og:description: "They were focused so hard on politics that they didn’t get the act together." og:url: https://time.com/4684860/donald-trump-academy-awards-best-picture/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt499b9887c8342724/6988bc1e7cdbac6431d57487/89th-academy-awards-_waxm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1922 og:image:height: 1081 og:image:alt: Jordan Horowitz, Warren Beatty og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Blames Best Picture Oscar Mix-Up on Politics twitter:description: "They were focused so hard on politics that they didn’t get the act together." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt499b9887c8342724/6988bc1e7cdbac6431d57487/89th-academy-awards-_waxm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Blames Best Picture Oscar Mix-Up on Politics > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Feb 27, 2017 9:40 PM UTC  Jordan Horowitz, producer of "La La Land," shows the envelope revealing "Moonlight" as the true winner of best picture at the Oscars on Feb. 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Jordan Horowitz, producer of "La La Land," shows the envelope revealing "Moonlight" as the true winner of best picture at the Oscars on Feb. 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Chris Pizzello—Invision/AP by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Feb 27, 2017 9:40 PM UTC President Trump blamed the Best Picture mix-up at Sunday’s Academy Awards on politics. In [an interview with the conservative Breitbart news website](http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/02/27/exclusive-president-trump-oscar-fail-focused-hard-politics-not-get-basics-right/), Trump said that the [mistaken announcement of _La La Land_ as Best Picture](http://time.com/4683998/oscars-2017-moonlight-la-la-land-mix-up/) and subsequent announcement that _Moonlight_ had actually won was due to producers [focusing too much on politics](http://time.com/4680665/oscars-2017-political-moments/). “I think they were focused so hard on politics that they didn’t get the act together at the end,” President Trump told Breitbart. “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.” Many parts of the Academy Awards ceremony seemed to take aim at Trump, from host Jimmy Kimmel’s gibes to a speech by [an Iranian filmmaker who did not attend in protest](http://time.com/4681987/asghar-farhadi-oscars-anousheh-iranian-american-space-experts/) of the [Administration’s travel ban](http://time.com/4652552/president-trump-is-suspending-a-refugee-program-and-banning-visas-from-7-countries/) and [other comments](https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/02/the-shadow-of-trump-at-the-oscars/517902/) from both presenters and [winners](http://time.com/4683198/oscars-2017-emma-stone-planned-parenthood/). Trump has regularly criticized the Oscars on Twitter as [“boring” and a “sad joke”](http://time.com/4681967/donald-trump-oscars-academy-awards/) in years past, but refrained from tweeting last night. Kimmel even tried to spur Trump to comment with a tweet during the ceremony: > [](https://twitter.com/jimmykimmel/status/836060793783267328) The President didn’t take the bait, although a former campaign spokeswoman spoke up in response. > [](https://twitter.com/KatrinaPierson/status/836062127806951424) Meanwhile, [a story in the Wall Street _Journal_ ](https://www.wsj.com/articles/pwc-partner-in-charge-of-oscar-winner-envelopes-was-tweeting-backstage-minutes-before-best-picture-mix-up-1488227883)Monday indicated that Twitter may be partly to blame for the mix-up. A managing partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, which oversees the awards ceremony, posted a celebrity photo on Twitter just minutes before giving the wrong envelope to actor Warren Beatty, the _Journal_ reports. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4684860/donald-trump-academy-awards-best-picture/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4684860/donald-trump-academy-awards-best-picture/"},"headline":"President Trump Blames Best Picture Oscar Mix-Up on Politics","datePublished":"2017-02-27T21:40:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:33:44.294Z","description":"President Trump blamed the Best Picture mix-up at Sunday's Academy Awards on politics.","url":"https://time.com/4684860/donald-trump-academy-awards-best-picture/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House","Oscars","Academy Awards"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt499b9887c8342724/6988bc1e7cdbac6431d57487/89th-academy-awards-_waxm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt499b9887c8342724/6988bc1e7cdbac6431d57487/89th-academy-awards-_waxm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Jordan Horowitz, Warren Beatty","caption":"Jordan Horowitz, Warren Beatty","creditText":"Chris Pizzello—Invision/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4684860/donald-trump-academy-awards-best-picture/","name":"President Trump Blames Best Picture Oscar Mix-Up on Politics"}}]}] ```