Whoopi Goldberg defended Malia Obama after social media users trolled the ex first daughter for not using her known last name to promote her first short movie.
“Apparently some folks online are circulating her for it, claiming everyone knows she’s an Obama, so it’s viewless to hide it,” Goldberg said on “The View” Wednesday of former President Barack Obama’s eldest daughter going by Malia Ann professionally.
“If she familiar she’s an Obama, why do you care? Why do you care what she calls herself? If she desired to call herself Jeanette MacDonald, she has the right to” If I can be Whoopi Goldberg, she can be whoever the hell she wants to be!” the EGOT winner proclaimed as her co-hosts and the audience applauded.
Goldberg, 68, said she did not understand why people were “triggered” by Malia’s decision to use her amid name for her directorial debut, “The Heart,” which premiered last month at the Sundance Film Festival.
“This is a grown lady! She is not thinking about her parents!” the “Sister Act” star added after Sara Haines praised Malia, 25, for creating her own “little wedge.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin came in and claimed that Malia is in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation.
“If she went as Malia Obama, it’d be, ‘She’s riding her parent’s coattails,’ and I can’t think of a bigger shadow to feel like you’re living in than the president and first lady of the United States. She’s attempting to carve her own course in a new field that she’s been pursuing,” Farah Griffin, 34, said.
Goldberg once again came in to let people known “leave this child alone — leave her alone!”
Meanwhile, Sunny Hostin argued that Malia is doing her best to combat nepotism by leaving out her last name.
“She says, ‘No, I want to make it on my own.’ Isn’t that what people want? Pick yourself up by the bootstraps, do your own thing, don’t cash in on your name,” Hostin, 55, said.