Jay Malsky, an actor and comedian enjoying his 15 minutes for heckling the animatronic Donald Trump in Disney World’s Hall of Presidents, is speaking out.
In a statement to TheWrap, Malsky said that anyone upset by his decision to heckle the robot needed to “check their privilege.”
“Anyone that’s upset I disrupted a family vacation can check their privilege and consider getting mad about the thousands of children being taken away from their parents because of Trump’s racist immigration policies, or the families of the hundreds of trans Americans murdered each year by transphobic and homophobic people, or the negative impacts of the tax bill on poor and middle-income Americans,” he said.
“My only regret us that Trump hasn’t blocked me on Twitter yet,” Malsky said. “And that Cher hasn’t retweeted me yet.” If either of those events occurred, he added, “I will die a very happy gay.”
He also praised Disney’s security staffers who promptly escorted him from the venue. “Disney security is amazing and they do a great job protecting the millions of people who frequent their parks every day,” he said. “They could not have been more professional and courteous to me once they made sure I wasn’t a legitimate threat to anyone.”
Malsky became a minor viral sensation after causing the disruption at the Disney World exhibit. Just as the animatronic Trump was set to speak, he unloaded a furious and sustained series of “lock him up” chants — as audience members audibly groaned.
“I protested,” he said, “cuz I’ll never get this close in real life probs.”
You can watch his original performance below.
I protested @realDonaldTrump at the #hallofpresidents cuz I’ll never get this close in real life probs. #lockhimup pic.twitter.com/jKOQShIdz8
— Earnest Gay Thoughts (@JayMalsky) December 27, 2017