News David Lynch backpedals on Trump praise: 'You are causing suffering' By Maureen Lee Lenker Maureen Lee Lenker Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly with over seven years of experience in the entertainment industry. An award-winning journalist, she's written for Turner Classic Movies, Ms. Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, and more. She's worked at EW for six years covering film, TV, theater, music, and books. The author of EW's quarterly romance review column, "Hot Stuff," Maureen holds Master's degrees from both the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford. Her debut novel, It Happened One Fight, is now available. Follow her for all things related to classic Hollywood, musicals, the romance genre, and Bruce Springsteen. EW's editorial guidelines Published on June 26, 2018 03:49PM EDT Photo: Stefania D'Alessandro/Getty Images; Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP/REX/Shutterstock David Lynch walked back his recent complimentary remarks about Donald Trump in a Facebook post Tuesday, directly addressing the president and telling him he’s “causing suffering and division.” The famed filmmaker added, “It’s not too late to turn the ship around. Point our ship toward a bright future for all. 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.” Lynch drew a polarizing response earlier this week when he made remarks about Trump in an interview with The Guardian. “He could go down as one of the greatest presidents in history because he has disrupted the thing so much. No one is able to counter this guy in an intelligent way,” Lynch said. “Our so-called leaders can’t take the country forward, can’t get anything done. Like children, they are. Trump has shown all this.” The conservative website Breitbart ran with the story, posting a headline that read, “Director David Lynch: Trump ‘Could Go Down as One of the Greatest Presidents in History,’” which Trump promptly retweeted. In his Facebook post, Lynch attempted to clear a few things up. “Dear Mr. President,” he 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.” Lynch then offered a warning, “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.” Read Lynch’s full post above. Close