“Twin Peaks” creator David Lynch went out on quite a limb recently when he said in a Guardian interview that President Donald Trump “could go down as one of the greatest presidents in history because he has disrupted things so much.”

In the Hollywood environment of today, saying anything more moderate than comparing Trump to a Nazi can lead to serious professional consequences.

Lynch wasn’t even fully endorsing Trump in his interview. He was merely acting as an artist should — and seeing things from both sides. Instead of planting his flag on one side or the other, he made an intelligent and interesting observation about Trump’s impact on American politics.

However, artists and creative people of all kinds have faced backlash for saying even moderately positive things about the president.

Trump recognized the risk Lynch took in being so open, and he retweeted an article highlighting the director’s comments on Monday. Later that night at his South Carolina rally, Trump read from the article to the gathered crowd.

He called Lynch a “great filmmaker,” but said he could face real consequences for speaking out. “Of course, there goes his career,” the president said.

He added that plenty more “Hollywood” people voted for him in 2016, but they’re afraid to admit it. “He’s a Hollywood guy, and plenty of them voted for me,” said Trump.

He concluded about Lynch, “His career in Hollywood is officially over.”

The extreme point is one that has merit. Plenty of conservative artists struggle to find work today because of political bias within the industry.

Despite that, here’s hoping the president is wrong about Lynch. He’s a talented filmmaker — and the entertainment industry needs more open thinkers like him.

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On Tuesday afternoon Lynch took to his Twitter to expand on his Trump comments. He clarified that he is not a supporter of the president, but instead of going the usual Hollywood route and comparing Trump to a Nazi, he said Trump has great potential and he’d love to have a conversation with the commander in chief.

“Dear Mr. President,” Lynch wrote. “This is David Lynch writing. I saw that you re-tweeted the Breitbart article with the heading – Director David Lynch: Trump ‘Could Go Down as One of the Greatest Presidents in History.’ I wish you and I could sit down and have a talk. This quote which has traveled around was taken a bit out of context and would need some explaining.”

He continued, “Unfortunately, if you continue as you have been, you will not have a chance to go down in history as a great president. This would be very sad it seems for you – and for the country. You are causing suffering and division.”

Lynch ended his letter by saying Trump still has the potential to unify people — quite a contrast to his many of his fellow Hollywood artists. “You can unite the country. Your soul will sing. Under great loving leadership, no one loses – everybody wins. It’s something I hope you think about and take to heart. All you need to do is treat all the people as you would like to be treated.”

This story has been updated.

PopZette editor Zachary Leeman can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.

(photo credit, homepage and article images: David Lynch [1], [2], CC BY 2.0, by Aaron)