The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, clarified on Twitter that while the Finding Dory screening had gone ahead on Sunday, Trump wasn’t watching.
“Odd that Trump is watching Finding Dory today, a movie about reuniting with family when he’s preventing it in real life,” Brooks tweeted.
DeGegeneres did not refer to the Finding Dory screening, but was tweeting her opposition to the travel ban at about the same time as Brooks on Sunday.
As the chaos and protests at airports around the US gathered steam on Sunday after President Donald Trump’s startling travel ban on people coming to America from seven majority-Muslim countries, the White House had a lighter listing on its official schedule: a screening of Finding Dory at the White House family theater from 3pm.