It took less than 24 hours. After Donald Trump posted a glowing tribute to Dolly Parton on his Truth Social page on Tuesday, the president made the country music icon’s death about himself on Wednesday during an interview with conservative commentator Glenn Beck.
“We all knew her so well. I knew her a little bit. She wasn’t a very political pers — she really liked me, I will tell you,” Trump told Beck about Parton, who died at age 80 on Tuesday.
The president pointed out that Parton did not broadcast her political views.
“She was of the opinion, ‘who needs to lose 50%,” Trump said of Parton, referring to her possibly alienating one-half of her fans who may disagree with her politically. “I don’t think it’s 50, I think it’s probably 20% of the fans … but she was just a great person and she was just a nice person. I liked her a lot, and I thought it was a natural thing to lower the flags.”
Trump’s comments to Beck prompted a bunch of “I told you sos” on social media from the president’s critics.
“Literally incapable of not making every single thing about himself,” posted Justin Kanew, founder of the popular anti-Trump X account The Tennessee Holler.
“It’s always about him,” added Dean Blundell, who has more than 130,000 followers on X.
“Oh good grief!” journalist Sophia A. Nelson opined about Trump’s remarks.
Conspiracy theorist expert and Trump critic Mike Rothschild reacted to the Beck interview by calling back to his tweet from Tuesday, when he posted: “I’m really not looking forward to what awful and self-serving nonsense Trump says about Dolly Parton.”
“As easy to predict as thunder and lightning,” Rothschild added on Wednesday.
Others disputed Trump’s assertion of Parton’s opinion of him, pointing to Parton twice declining the Medal of Freedom from his administration. But Parton cited her ill husband’s health and COVID for the turning down the honors, not because they were offered by Trump.
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Howard Koplowitz; al.com; (TNS) || ©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit al.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
