Ellen DeGeneres Had The Best Response To Eric Trump's "Deep South" Theory About Her

On The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday, host Ellen DeGeneres responded to Eric Trump's "Deep State" conspiracy theory about her, and if you think that's a weird opening sentence, you're not alone. Yes, the president's son recently tweeted a screenshot of some suggestions Twitter had made to him about other people he should follow on the social media platform, and he suggested to followers that those users — including DeGeneres — are part of the "Deep State." Still confused? Allow me to explain further.

The "Deep State" is supposedly "a group of shadowy civil servants believed by conspiracy theorists to be working to undermine the current administration," according to Rolling Stone. And on Tuesday, the president’s son tweeted a screenshot of Twitter’s suggested users for him to follow — Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama, and Ellen DeGeneres, in that order. Along with the screenshot, Eric tweeted, "Shocking... once again, here are the @Twitter 'suggestions' of who I should follow. #DeepState," according to Vanity Fair. Romper reached out to Eric Trump at The Trump Organization and the White House for further comment, but did not receive an immediate response.

Well, it didn't take long for DeGeneres to respond to that bizarre action. On her show on Tuesday, she kept her response to Eric pretty light, with her usual dose of Ellen-esque humor, but also pointed out some reasons why the suggestion that she's part of some powerful liberal conspiracy is a little ridiculous. And Twitter is here for it.

DeGeneres started off by saying she was excited to see her name trending on Twitter, and thanked people for tuning in to her new show, Ellen's Game of Games. In a clip of segment posted on YouTube, she said:

If you know me at all, you know I don't pay attention to politics, but unfortunately politics pays attention to me. So, I woke up this morning and I saw that my name was trending on Twitter and I'm like, oh my God that's so exciting because I thought my new show Game of Games did really well with the ratings last night – and it did. Thank you, so much, everybody, for watching.

But she continued by addressing the controversy directly, and brought up a news article about Eric suggesting that she's part of the "Deep State." Never one to miss out on poking fun a little bit, DeGeneres then said, according to The Washington Post:

So, I have some questions: First of all, which one is Eric? Did he kill the elephant or the cheetah?

Because while DeGeneres might claim that she doesn't pay attention to politics, she did pledge back in November to donate funds to a wildlife nonprofit as a response to President Donald Trump trying to decide whether to allow elephant hunting trophies, The Washington Post reported.

DeGeneres then joked a little more about the suggestion, and said that it's ridiculous to believe in such a group trying to undermine Trump because "no one has undermined Donald Trump more than Donald Trump," Vanity Fair reported.

DeGeneres then thanked Eric for thinking that she was powerful enough to be a part of a government conspiracy in the first place, then denied being a part of the "Deep State."

DeGeneres also joked that she couldn't be a part of the "Deep State" even if she wanted to, what with her gay agenda meetings on Mondays, plus her illuminati brunches with Beyoncé, according to TIME.

All in all, DeGeneres handled the strange suggestion from Eric pretty well. She could have gotten angry or defensive over it, but she took the high road and made the whole thing funnier than it already kinda was instead.

At the end of the segment, DeGeneres offered a pretty good reason why Twitter might suggest that Eric follow her. She said, according to Rolling Stone:

But there's probably another explanation for why Twitter suggested that you follow me. I mean, it could be a conspiracy or it could be because your sister Ivanka follows me on Twitter, and your sister Tiffany follows me on Twitter and maybe you should follow me. I mean, because I post a lot of cute videos.

Then, in true Ellen DeGeneres style, she played a cute animal video. Because of course she did.

For the most part, Twitter really had a field day with Eric's initial tweet about DeGeneres' supposed involvement with the "Deep State." And after DeGeneres talked about the whole situation on her show, Twitter proved that its users were totally here for her clap back to Eric, as tame and humorous as it might have been in the end.

To his credit, Eric's dad, President Trump, did not weigh in on Twitter on the matter of DeGeneres' suggested involvement with a group acting against him and his administration.

It's not entirely clear why Eric immediately jumped to thinking a shadow government must be responsible for his Twitter follow suggestions, and not just, say, a random algorithm. But however he came to that conclusion, the people of Twitter are not going to let him forget the incident anytime soon.

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