Director Judd Apatow claims ‘we’re in a dictatorship now’ during Golden Globes remarks

Director Judd Apatow claimed that America is “in a dictatorship” during his remarks at the 83rd Annual Golden Globe Awards Sunday night.

Apatow was presenting the award for Best Director when he began commenting about how much has changed since his film, “Trainwreck,” lost a Golden Globe Award to director Ridley Scott’s film “The Martian” in 2016.

“A lot has happened since then. That was 10 years ago,” Apatow said. “Since then, we’ve had COVID. I believe we’re a dictatorship now. I’m still pretty focused on this ‘The Martian’ thing, I’ve got to be honest with you.”

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Judd Apatow at the 83rd Annual Golden Globes held at The Beverly Hilton on Jan. 11, 2026, in Beverly Hills, California. (Rich Polk/2026GG/Penske Media via Getty Images)

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment. 

Apatow was an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump during his first administration, often using inflammatory language.

In 2017, he compared his feelings on Trump being elected to “a person about to get raped.”

“I feel like I’ve just been raped, and I just don’t know if I’m going to get murdered,” he told the Daily Beast.

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In 2020, Apatow also accused Trump of mass murder because of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Judd Apatow has been a frequent critic of the Trump administration. (Getty Images)

“Donald is a mass murderer. Any comment which doesn’t make that clear is lying about what he is doing. He has chosen to misinform people to help him politically which is killing tens of thousands more people. He is a mass murderer by choice. He should be impeached for murder,” he wrote on X, then Twitter.

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Apatow wasn’t the only celebrity who invoked politics during the award show that night. Several celebrities, including Mark Ruffalo, Wanda Sykes, Jean Smart, Ariana Grande and Natasha Lyonne, wore pins that said, “ICE OUT” or “Be Good,” in reference to Renee Good, the Minneapolis woman who was fatally shot by an ICE agent last week.

Comedian Wanda Sykes wears a pin reading “BE GOOD,” in tribute to Renee Good, who was fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, as she attends the 83rd annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on Jan. 11, 2026. (Michael Tran / AFP via Getty Images)

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Fox News’ Christina Dugan Ramirez contributed to this report.