Taiwan-born congressman Ted Lieu is trolling ‘evil’ Trump like crazy, and it’s making him a political star
In the packed auditorium at the Creative Artists Agency, a vortex of entertainment-industry power and current progressive political woe, comedian Kathy Griffin - tiny, insistently red-tressed - erupts in full-throttle rasp at the man in the boxy gray suit as he finishes up onstage.
“I saw you on the Joy Reid show on MSNBC,” Griffin says, coming up from the audience to address Representative Ted Lieu, a California Democrat speaking at the CAA Foundation’s Take Action Day. “You’re giving us hope!”
A trio of sleek female agents surrounds Lieu, as if mistaking him for some TV heartthrob like actor Joshua Jackson, who is on the same environmental panel yet attracting far less attention.
“You’re a rock star,” they gasp. “We love your tweets.”
With Lieu, it’s all about the tweets. Since the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, Lieu has become a tweeting demon, famous as the man, as the Los Angeles Times put it, “trolling the Tweeter in Chief.”
He’s a very serious man. Very polite, very cordial. He doesn’t say any bad words
After November 8, Lieu, like many congressional Democrats, was dispirited at the thought of controlling nothing and constantly having to play defence. “Honestly,” says the 48-year-old second-termer, “I felt hopeless for many weeks after the election.”