IHIP News - Trump Facing Major Blowback For Saying This About Dolly Parton

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

MAGA is trying to claim the late great Dolly Parton.Pre-order Jennifer’s new book Not Today, Fascists today: https://linktr.ee/ivehaditpodcastFollow Us:I've Had It Podcast: @IvehaditpodcastJennifer Welch: @mizzwelchAngie Sullivan: @pumpspumpspumpsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

All right. When I read the headline yesterday that an 80-year-old had died, I was devastated to find out that that was Dolly Parton, who was just an amazing, amazing, talented woman. Fundamentally, this is a woman who bought books for people, didn't ban books. This is a woman who stood up for the marginalized and didn't bully them. This is a woman who stood with the LGBTQ plus community, the black community, and didn't bully them. Despite her doing all of this in the classiest way imaginable, Donald Trump is so narcissistic. He's making her death about himself, of course. Let's play the clip. She's unique. I mean, she was amazing.

And to lose her, it's like you lose a member of the family. You know, we all knew her so well. I knew a little bit. She wasn't a very political person. She really liked me, I will tell you, but she also wanted to stay very, you know, she was of the opinion, you know, the 50% who needs to lose. I don't think it's 50. I think it's probably 20% of the fans, okay, not 50, but she was a great person.

I always stunned when I hear him, even though I shouldn't be by now. When everything goes back to, well, he really liked me. I liked him because he really liked me. I'm just like, what? What? Who thinks that way? Oh, I know who. The president of the United States. He thinks every in terms of himself. Everything is in terms of himself. It's really, every time I hear it, I'm just like, wow. It's a reminder. No, it is. It always takes my breath away too. I'm just like, it. It's not so much that he says it because it's predictable that he says it. It's how many people hear that and don't have the same reaction that we just had? That's where my brain goes, like that they're like, yeah, she really liked him. She really, that they don't think, what a blowhard, what an arrogant POS, that they don't process that with the judgment that such a narcissistic statement should garner. But the fact of the matter is that Dolly Parton didn't want anything to do with MAGA or Trump. Pop this up.

Dolly Parton turned down an offer to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice during the Donald Trump administration. You know, here's the thing with Dolly. Unlike Ted Cruz, she is the exact opposite, both the right and the left. Like there's nobody that disagrees that Dolly Parton was an icon. She stood for everything that's good. The American Dream really grew up completely impoverished, made her own ticket. Like didn't sell her songs. She would let people sing him, but she always made the money. Great businesswoman. She typifies everything that the American Dream symbolizes. And I just think that if that is truly in your heart, and clearly that was her conviction by everything that she did, you cannot stand in Donald Trump's Oval Office. You cannot receive an award from him because it's tainted. It's tainted with cruelty and racism and vast incompetence. And I have heard Dolly Parton multiple interviews is a lifelong fan of hers. I feel like we all grew up with her. Yeah.

That she did live the American dream, but differently, a better version of it. Because what she would say is, yeah, I've made a lot of money, but I don't do this for the money. I do it for the art. And she did make a lot of money, but differently than all of these other hundreds of millionaires and billionaires, she gave back. Right. She bought books for kids. She funded a vaccine. She made money, so much money, doing something she loves.

And that's the part of America that we need to bring back. This form of the Jeff Bezos America or immigrant Elon Musk's America, where they say, well, philanthropy doesn't really do anything. That's just a complete lie. You're just a completely greedy, selfish person. I saw Jeff Bezos had the audacity to do a post. about Dolly. And I'm just like, go ahead, go ahead, make that split screen, Bezos. I mean, this is a woman who would never, she was rich, but she's never going to have the kind of

money you had. And she's given more way and cared more. And she stood on business. And she refused to go to the Oval to get the medal that she clearly earned. But she refused to go get it from that fascist president. You, on the other hand, race there with participation awards and made up gifts for him that you had to give to him. So that's just incredibly rich how many people that stand for everything that Dolly tried to stamp out through a message of love and philanthropy and inclusivity. These people are trying to draw a parallel or latch on to her. And of course, Dolly was a fierce defender of the LGBTQ plus community. Play the clip. Recently, those throw support to the LGBT.

community? Oh, I'm always encouraged. I'm not encouraged. They've made me the poster child, I think, only because I'm so outspoken as far as just being accepting of people in general. I do not believe that we should criticize and judge other people. I think

we should be accepting and loving. We are all God's children. We are who we are, and we should allow to be who we are. Did any of the faith-based communities that deeply believe the other way take umbrage with him? Oh, absolutely. They did. Oh, yes. I get it all the time. I keep saying,

well, if you're the fine Christian that you're, you think you are, why are you judging people? Lover. And this is, she was doing this a long, long time ago. She was a trailblazer and standing up for the LGBTQ plus community, the same community that Donald Trump doesn't give a shit about, the same community, this terrified of drag queens, the same community that, um, that, um, doesn't even really like art. And so for them to clamor on to Dolly Pardon, who was an artist, and the reason that we just need to talk about, the reason Republicans don't like art,

and you always, if you ever meet people that don't appreciate art, they're Republicans, because art, at the epicenter of it is critical thinking. At the epicenter of it is inclusivity. At the epicenter of it is all of this exploration. Art opens up your mind to so many different things. And that is a problem for the MAGA fascist project, much the same way that Jesus Christ is a problem for the MAGA fascist project. Radical empathy like she was talking about right there, but also in such a sassy southern way. Well, if you're just such a good Christian, then why are you judging and why are you being such a hypocrite?

My mother said that my entire life growing up, always pointing out the absolute, abject hypocrisy in the most overt. overtly loud, megaphone holding religious people were the most judgmental twats among us. Absolutely right. And you know what's interesting about Dully Parton is she took the criticism and she continued to do it. Like you said, for years and years, it did not change her. It did not change her outlook. And I think when you think here's just my birds eye view, having been indoctrinated and raised in the evangelical Christian movement. Dolly Parton was everything that I was taught you're supposed to be like Jesus. You're supposed to be empathetic.

You're supposed to be inclusive, feed the hungry, all the things. But the minute we walked away from that, the meanest, cruelest, judgmental, righteous indignation, dehumanizing because it was more about money and superiority. and entitled, I'm entitled to it. Dolly Parton, despite the fact that she talked about every morning she got up, the first thing she did was read her Bible. She practiced the radical empathy that you're talking about. And I think that's why, you know, the Pope's a problem for the right.

Same with Dolly Parton because she was like, I love everybody. I'm including everybody. I'm not judging anybody. And that from somebody who was like judgment is how you're raised. You're entitled to judge other people, making it easier to dehumanize them, making it easier for you to vote Republican. Yeah. All right. And here's Dolly speaking out against racism. Play the clip. Of course. Black lives matter. Do we think our little white asses are the only ones that matter?

I mean, this is just, this is, to me, that's the America I want to live in. I agree. I want diversity. I want to be around. people that have differing world views, but the connective tissue in that is that we all advocate for each other. We all might have different life experiences. But to live in America and to have the privilege that we have and have the privilege that Dolly Parton had, and to ignore the centuries long subjugation and scapegoating of black Americans is fundamentally at epicenter of how Republicans continue to win. And I love her ever saying, of course, Black Lives Matter. And you notice how simply she's able to state her convictions. The Democratic establishment

should take, watch some of her clips, very plain spoken. And she, you know it's real because she believes that she's never had to change her opinion. She's never had to do an about face. She's lived it. She's believed in it her entire life. And of course she wasn't a politician, but we look to in a society all sorts of people for inspiration. And I just challenge those at the DNC to listen to how simply she speaks about that. Well, of course they matter.

We think our white asses, their only thing that matters. It's very simple. It's very effective. And it's full of compassion and common sense. And then, of course, MAGA spreads vaccine conspiracy theories everywhere they can. People are dropping dead because they're not getting vaccinated. Dolly believed in funding science. Let's pop this up.

Dolly Pardon helped fund the Moderna vaccine for COVID. This is incredible because here we have an 80-year-old Donald Trump. they defunded cancer research. Some of this cancer research, they were on the precipice of finding a vaccine for cancer. That whole program has been completely defunded. That's Donald Trump and the quote unquote pro-life MAGA people. They want to defund life-saving measures because they are lying about being pro-life because MAGA is a pro-death cult. We've got to return to a society where we look at people's actions, right, and not their words. We look at their motivations and not their words. And Trump is clearly motivated by money.

And all of the people surrounding him are motivated, motivated by money or their appetite for to consume recreational cruelty. And the fact that they are trying to claim Dolly right now is just, of course they're trying to do shit like this. Of course they are. And I just, I want to point out that I have watched so many of her interviews over the years. And obviously I binged a 10 last night. And she said one of the things she was most proud of was her imagination library for literacy. Under the Trump administration, what imagination library?

It sends a book every month free to every child until they go to school. And there has been research like they've done. Like the kids that are exposed to these books have a higher literacy rate when they go into school. Okay. Well, that makes sense. This will not shock you at all. But under the Trump administration, the federal funds that helped in that endeavor over 300 million books to kids slash that. We don't need your kids to be smart.

We don't need them to read. They want you stupid. Full stop. They want you stupid. And the Trump administration says, we're for freedom. yet they're for banning books. We're for freedom, but yet they are dismantling the Voting Rights Act. We're for freedom, but the pastor of the Secretary of Defense of the United States of America

wants to repeal the 19th Amendment. They're not for freedom. They are for control. They are for stupidity. They are an anti-family death cult. Everything about them. It is an anti-family death cult. These are the most hypocritical Christians on the planet.

And despite all of this, despite this case we've made here, that Dolly was a very savvy way of being woke, very savvy about the way she did this. Very plain spoken, very simple. Maga still wants to claim her. Pop this up. Turning Point USA. Where kids and imaginations and critical thinking go to die. post the following. Dolly Parton proved what happens when hard work meets unwavering faith. She turned a humble life in the Great Smoky Mountains into an entertainment empire,

poured millions into children's literacy, and never forgot where she came from. A true example of the American dream in action, rest in peace. So Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk said if he got on an airplane and there was a black pilot that would worry him, that would concern him because Charlie Kirk was an unapologetic, unrepentant, racist. Dolly Parton just said there, of course, Black Lives Matter. She stood with the marginalized. So for Turning Point, who was founded in an anti-science world by this guy, the 70-year-old

who funded Charlie Kirk, their big issues were guns and anti-science, no vaccines. The 70-year-old that founded Turning Point with Charlie Kirk died of COVID because he was too big of a dipshit to get vaccinated. And Charlie Kirk died of something he advocated for, gun violence while he was talking about gang violence, which is code for black people are the only people that have gun problems. Meanwhile, Charlie Kirk was shot by a white kid that was raised by a mag of family. And so that to me is such a disgrace to Dolly Parton to have Turning Point USA where intellect goes to die. Literally intellectual suicide happens at Turning Point USA to act like they're so for kids reading books and shit. It's just unbelievable. How disgusting.

And I just want to say this, Turning Point USA, there's this world in, you know, the United States where it's getting more popular on college campuses. They had a huge rally at the University of Oklahoma. And it's just rather disgusting to me that they want to pile onto her success when she stood for as an antidote to all of the hate that they preach. Well, of course they do because here's the thing. They all want to grab on to Dolly Parton because she's good. And I think that all of these people like Turning Point, I think in their mind they think they're good, but they know they're really not on some deep level. They know it's a grift.

And there's one thing that comes across with Dolly Parton was that she was authentic. She was who she was. She never changed it. She stood fast in her beliefs. And Turning Point at the end of the day, It's a grift to make the higher-ups money and to make the electorate less intelligent so they will continue to allow the likes of Donald Trump and the grifting. I mean, it's just exact all.

So, of course, they're grabbing on you. Everything you said is true, but the real reason is even more insidious and nefarious than everything. And it is what churches know. And it is what Benjamin Nanyahu wants to do with, talk and it is what turning point wants to do capture the youth capture the youth and doctrinate them young and that's what turning point is trying to do college is the entry point to where you leave your nest and you leave the for a lot of kids at least a lot of kids I grew up

around this is a black and white worldview this these are the only things you're allowed to believe and a lot of evangelical parents take their kids brain and close it to a one inch highway and this is all you can see this is all you can do this is all you can believe they get to college and it goes like this and they open up their minds and critical thinking and they're finally in a safe space to ask did noa really put all those animals on that yacht did that really happen and god and god was mad and genocided everybody is this that real and so it's like no of course it's not and so they're hearing that for the first time turning point is actively trying to block that beautiful evolution that every person goes to where they discover who they are and what their own beliefs are.

And it is to keep those children's minds this wide. That's it. That's the point. So it's really, really grotesque. Now, up at the very top of it, like Erica Kurt, I mean, grift out the wazoo. I mean, that's just unbelievable. I'll never get over her video of her slumped over the coffin. I mean, I just, yeah.

It's just the weirdest shit I've ever seen. That always pops in my head too. Like that was, how do you do that? Like your husband just gets shot and that's some weird shit. And you take a photo up by the coffin? A video. That was so weird. Oh, God.

All right. Rest in peace, Dolly. You're an inspiration. And what a, what a thumbprint. What a, what a beautiful life and what it, all the footage of all the singing. all of the wonderful songs, but just her social justice advocacy is just incredible. All right, that's all we have, like and subscribe. We'll be back later with more news.