Get Out director Jordan Peele: 'Donald Trump is a racist'

'I’m disheartened by policies that are xenophobic and sexist... there are many strides backwards every day'

With Get Out, writer/director Jordan Peele announced to the world that it was the time for us all to speak the truth about racism in America.

Unsurprisingly, then, he didn’t hesitate in his condemnation of Donald Trump, while speaking to CBS’ Sunday Morning to celebrate Get Out now firmly entering the awards season race.

“You know, the truth is the president is a racist, which is very sad,” Peele stated, “and I’m disheartened by policies that are xenophobic and sexist … there are many strides backwards every day. What does give me hope is, you know, so [President] Obama used to say, you know, ‘Progress isn’t always a straight line.” Which -- who knows how true it is? But I believe it.”

Peele added that his film has become part of the national conversation about race that is happening across the US, with artists increasingly motivated to integrate ideas of diversity and race into their work.

“So, what I am encouraged by is that the movie Get Out has been heard and received, and that I’m seeing many other examples of art and film and television that are expressing these pains, frustrations, love in new ways, and that they’re being received. And that I think will create progress,” he continued.

Certainly, Peele himself hopes to continue in his work as a director; with his sketch show Key & Peele, a collaboration between him and Keegan-Michael Key, ending after five seasons, he has no more plans to act.

“Yeah. That’s the idea... Daniel Day-Lewis and I are both out,” he joked. “Acting is just nowhere near as fun for me as directing.”

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