Streep, who was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award on Sunday, slammed Trump in front of a room of stunned Hollywood stars.

She said the moment he mocked and humiliated a disabled reporter `broke her heart` as Streep labelled it the year`s most stunning performance.

Trump told the New York Times early Monday that he had not seen Streep`s speech or the Golden Globes coverage.

But he said he was `not surprised` that he was being criticized by `liberal movie people`.

The president-elect said: `I was never mocking anyone. 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 added: `And remember, Meryl Streep introduced Hillary Clinton at her convention, and a lot of these people supported Hillary.`

Streep, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention in support of Clinton last year, never mentioned Trump by name during her speech.

The president-elect came under fire in 2015 for mocking New York Times investigative reporter Serge Kovaleski by impersonating the journalist`s physical handicap. It was an incident replayed frequently in campaign advertising last year.

`There was nothing good about it, but it did its job,` Streep said of the moment in her acceptance speech.

`It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can`t get it out my head because it wasn`t in a movie, it was in real life.

`It was that moment when a person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter - someone he outranked in privilege, in power and in the capacity to fight back.

`That instinct to humiliate, when it`s modeled by someone in a public platform, it filters down into everyone`s life because it gives permission for others to do the same.

`Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose.`

Streep, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention, also called for the press to stand up to Trump and hold him to account going forward.




Trump had mocked Kovaleski at a rally in South Carolina for what he saw as the reporter stepping away from an article he wrote on the 9/11 attacks in The Washington Post.

`Now the poor guy, you ought to see this guy,` Trump said, drawing his wrists up close to his chest and flailing around. `"Ah, I don`t know what I said! I don`t remember!"`

Kovaleski has arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that has locked his right arm up against his chest in a similar position to the one Trump held. He claimed Trump was mocking his disability, while Trump denied at the time knowing who Kovaleski was.

Pro-Trump website Catholics 4 Trump claimed last year that the Republican had a long history of making similar gestures while mocking other people.

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