Way back in the fall of 2015, a simpler time, Saturday Night Live made the extremely questionable decision of having then-presidential candidate Donald Trump host an episode of the show. Sia was the musical guest. And now, in a new profile with Rolling Stone, the pop star recalls an anecdote about meeting Trump backstage while taping the episode.
After the show, Sia says, she was walking back to her dressing room when she heard someone call her name. She turned around to find herself face to face with Donald Trump. “We’ve got to get a photo!” he said. Cue Ivanka, emerging from the shadows behind him with a camera in tow.
As a self-described co-dependent, Sia hates hurting other people’s feelings, so she was afraid to say no to him. But she also didn’t want a photograph of her looking cozy with a sexist, racist bigot plastered all over the internet. So she mustered up the courage and replied, “Actually, do you mind if we don’t? I have a lot of queer and Mexican fans, and I don’t want them to think that I support your views.”
After a beat, Trump said, “Oh, no problem. Then don’t.” Surprisingly, Sia says, despite his legendarily thin skin, he didn’t seem angry or hurt at all by the rejection. “It was as if he viewed me as protecting my brand,” Sia explains. “He respected that. I was like, ‘Thank you so much,’ and then I went into my dressing room and had crazy diarrhea.”
This article originally appeared on Stereogum.
