J.K. Rowling is giving Donald Trump her full-throated support — not for his views but for his right to travel to Britain.
The “Harry Potter” author spoke at the Pen Literary Awards Gala on Monday night in New York City, saying: “I find almost everything that Mr. Trump says objectionable. I consider him offensive and bigoted.”
But she said the New York businessman “has my full support to come to my country and be offensive and bigoted there. His freedom to speak protects my freedom to call him a bigot. His freedom guarantees mine.”
Rowling was referencing a half-million-signature petition that aimed to ban the presumptive GOP presidential nominee from entering the United Kingdom. The British Parliament ruled it out in January.
“If my offended feelings can justify a travel ban on Donald Trump, I have no moral grounds upon which to argue that those offended by feminism, or the fight for transgender rights, or universal suffrage, should not oppress campaigners for those causes,” said Rowling, who once called Trump “worse than Voldemort.”
“If you seek the removal of freedom from an opponent simply because they have offended you, you have crossed the line to stand alongside tyrants who imprison, torture and kill with exactly the same justification.”