Samuel L. Jackson Criticized for Homophobic Tweet

Samuel L. Jackson took a swing at President Donald Trump on Twitter on Friday, but the stunt may have backfired on the Avengers actor.

The president celebrated his 72nd birthday on Thursday, and a day later Jackson insinuated he was having a sexual relationship with several high-ranking Republicans.

“Must have been a party at The White House, Mitch (McConnell), Paul (Ryan), Rudy (Giuliani) & others were spotted wearing knee pads & carrying these lined up outside. Happy Birthday,” Jackson wrote.

The actor has been a vocal critic of Trump in the past, but the tweet was not well received by many Twitter users, some of whom accusing Jackson of being homophobic.

Several users tagged Capital One, a company Jackson does commercials for, saying he should be fired for the tweet.

“[Capital One] time to pull your commercials with this homophobe,” a Twitter user wrote.

“White guy gets fired from his job for anti-Trump cartoon but this is okay? Capital One should fire him for this,” wrote another. The tweet was in reference to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette firing its political cartoonist Rob Rogers after being repeatedly blocked for drawing cartoons criticizing Trump and his policies.

“Comedy 101: A joke should be funny. You might want to keep that in mind when choosing movie scripts too,” another Twitter user wrote.

“Did you and Joy Reid get hacked by the same person?” asked another, referencing MSNBC anchor Joy Reid recent claim that she was attacked by hackers after old homophobic blog posts were discovered.

Actor Adam Baldwin also spoke up, commenting “Gay shaming?” before deleting the tweet.

Jackson wasn’t the only actor to publicly call out Trump this week. On Sunday, Robert De Niro arrived at the Tony Awards to introduce a live Bruce Springsteen performance. But before that, the two-time Academy Award winner voiced his displeasure about the current administration.

“I’m going to say one thing, f— Trump,” De Niro said. “It’s no longer down with Trump, it’s f— Trump.” The CBS broadcast censored the language, though uncensored versions quickly reached social media as he was given a standing ovation from the crowd at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Jackson’s latest film, The Incredible 2, hit theaters on Thursday night.