One of America’s most beloved stars recently joined in on one of Hollywood’s favorite hobbies — Trump-bashing. And “The Ingraham Angle” on Wednesday night shared some thoughts about that, sentiments no doubt also felt by many Americans.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham played a telling clip of the actor giving an interview: When asked if he would be interested in attending a screening of his new film, “The Post,” at the White House, Hanks surprisingly said he’d skip out on such an event.

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“I don’t think I would. Because I think that at some point … Look, I didn’t think things were going to be this way last November,” the actor told The Hollywood Reporter. “I would not have been able to imagine that we would be living in a country where neo-Nazis are doing torchlight parades in Charlottesville, [Virginia] and jokes about Pocahontas are being made in front of the Navajo code talkers. And individually, we have to decide when we take to the ramparts. You don’t take to the ramparts necessarily right away, but you do have to start weighing things. You may think: ‘You know what? I think now is the time.’ This is the moment where, in some ways, our personal choices are going to have to reflect our opinions. We have to start voting, actually, before the election. So, I would probably vote not to go.”

The new Tom Hanks film follows the events leading up to the controversial decision by then-Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee (played by Hanks) and publisher Katharine Graham (played by Meryl Streep) to release the Pentagon Papers — the classified documents that proved the government had deceived the American public in regard to the Vietnam War.

“The Post” — an obvious Oscar contender — would appear to be the perfect movie to screen at the White House, one that could invite lively debate and conversation about changes in the press, the importance of solid journalism, and more. Hanks, however, cannot look past his disapproval of President Donald Trump to see those conversations as valuable.

The Washington Post published the Pentagon Papers when the publication “actually had them.” Today, the paper moves forward with rumors and unconfirmed reports — and “all too often gets things totally wrong.”

“Hollywood is doing all it can to diss Trump,” said host Laura Ingraham in summing up Hanks’ recent comments. Hanks, she argued, is joining in on the bashing of the president in an attempt to “sell his movie.”

The trouble with Hanks’ film and his thinking, as Ingraham noted, is this: The press of years ago as depicted in “The Post” is very different from the one that exists now. Today’s hyperpartisan and lopsided media environment only serves to legitimize the president’s attacks on mainstream outlets like The Washington Post.

Ben Bradlee, Ingraham argued, moved forward with facts. The Washington Post published the Pentagon Papers when the publication “actually had them.” Today, she said, the paper moves forward with rumors and unconfirmed reports — and “all too often gets things totally wrong.”

Of Hanks and his brief dive into politics, Ingraham said, “He kind of flops as a political commentator. Maybe it’s time to ‘cast away’ Tom Hanks [a reference to his film of that name]. I kind of liked him better on the deserted island talking to that volleyball.”

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(photo credit, homepage image: Donald Trump, Cut Out, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore)