In a phone interview early Monday with The New York Times, Trump said he hadn't heard her speech but wasn't surprised that the actress had blasted him, calling her a "Hillary lover" and hand-waving criticism from "liberal movie people."
Later Monday morning, Trump tweeted that Streep is "over-rated" and a "Hillary flunky." It wasn't clear whether he had watched the speech before posting the tweets.
"There was one performance this year that stunned me, that sank its hooks in my heart. It wasn’t because it was good – there was nothing good about it – but it was effective and it did its job," she said. "It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth. It was that moment, when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter, someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can’t get it out of my head, because it wasn’t in a movie; it was real life."
She added: "This instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose."
>> WATCH: Meryl Streep calls out Trump, asks for empathy during Golden Globes speech
In the Times interview, Trump denied mocking the reporter.
“I was never mocking anyone," he said. "I was calling into question a reporter who had gotten nervous because he had changed his story.
"People keep saying I intended to mock the reporter’s disability, as if Meryl Streep and others could read my mind, and I did no such thing."
He also pointed out that Streep was a supporter of Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent in the 2016 presidential race.
“Remember, Meryl Streep introduced Hillary Clinton at her convention, and a lot of these people supported Hillary," he said.
Trump continued his rant on Twitter.
>> Click here or scroll down to see what he had to say
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