The now infamous “You didn’t vote for Trump, did you?” scene from The White Lotus continues to live in my mind rent-free, but it looks like US President Donald Trump might’ve had more of an impact on the latest season than we thought.
Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar on Saturday, actress Carrie Coon shed some light on the backstory of her character Laurie and dropped more deets into how the US president might’ve influenced some storylines.
Specifically, she dished that a queer detail about Laurie’s child was cut after the US election.
“You originally found out that her daughter was actually non-binary, maybe trans, and going by they/them,” Coon told Harper’s Bazaar on Saturday.
“You see Laurie struggling to explain it to her friends, struggling to use they/them pronouns, struggling with the language, which was all interesting.”
And while it was admittedly a short scene, Coon suggested it added a layer of complexity for her character with the conversation around whether her friend Kate (Leslie Bibb) voted for Trump.
“For me, it did make the question [in episode 3] of whether Kate voted for Trump so much more provocative and personally offensive to Laurie, considering who her child is in the world,” she said.
Notably, the latest season was written and filmed before the November 2024 election result. But with the significant anti-trans policies passed by the Trump administration since then, The White Lotus creator Mike White decided the scene “was so small” and the topic so significant that it “wasn’t the right way to engage in that conversation,” Coon explained.
What did the actors think about that Trump scene in The White Lotus?
The drama-filled trio of Laurie, Kate, and Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) have kept us pretty entertained — and aggravated — this season as the passive-aggressive jabs, eye-rolls, and unspoken tension come more and more to the surface.
It’s been a fascinating look at potentially outgrowing your friendships as well as the complex dynamics of a three-person friend group where one person seems to always be on the outs. But it’s also made for some pretty interesting political commentary.
Remember wayyy back in episode three, we saw the childhood friends navigate a pretty uncomfortable conversation over dinner around the US political environment and where they stand with their political leanings.
“Is that weird for you?” Jaclyn asks Kate about her life in Texas and, more specifically, how it might feel to be surrounded by Republican-leaning colleagues.
“Why would it be weird?” Kate responds innocently and let’s be honest, I think a lot of us knew where it was going from here.
“If I were around a bunch of Texans who voted for Trump I’d feel… alienated,” Jaclyn said, only to be met by a defensive reply.
That’s when Laurie wades in and she’s visibly confused when she asks: “Wait, are you a Republican?”
To everyone’s shock (or maybe not…?) Kate admits she’s an independent but her partner Dave votes Republican. And when probed for more, she simply says: “Are we really gonna talk about Trump tonight?” in a non-answer that really says it all.
Speaking to Variety after the episode aired, actress Leslie Bibb — who plays Kate — said the scene felt “irrelevant” back when they filmed it.
“When we were filming it, it actually felt like it was going to be irrelevant,” she said.
“It’s randomly current. I think it’s so easy to be divisive, and it felt like Mike — not that he wasn’t picking a side — was just showing that not everybody’s a villain. She wasn’t going to ruin this holiday over who she voted for.”
In a way, it highlighted the split nature of the US since Trump’s re-election and how the presidential result could be fracturing or affecting relationships, Bibb observed.
On that note, it’s especially noteworthy the dinner conversation ends with really no resolution.
“[Everything] feels so divisive, and yet we’re not,” Bibb told the publication.
“I mean, they’re all sort of passionate women and have these feelings, all with different stances, but there’s some tether between them. You don’t have to throw the baby out with the bath water just because of their political views.”
Will the Trump administration (and any other political insights) come up again this season? Well, we’ve got two episodes left till The White Lotus wraps up, so there’s technically still time — we’ll keep our eyes peeled.
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