Trump speaks on Hamilton controversy, says Mike Pence 'harassed' by cast

United States President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday accused the cast of Broadway's popular musical "Hamilton" of harassing the Vice President-elect Mike Pence. The Hamilton cast on Friday evening prepared a speech for Pence to "uphold American values" during his term.

After word spread on social media that Pence was attending the hit musical on Friday night, Hamilton actor Brandon Victor Dixon requested Pence to stay back at the end of the show and welcomed him during the curtain call. Dixon said, "We truly thank you for joining us here at 'Hamilton: An American Musical.' We really do."

"We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us. All of us," Dixon said on the stage.

However, the incident did not go down well with Donald Trump and his supporters. While his supporters called to boycott the Hamilton show, Trump sent out a flurry of tweets asking the cast to apologise to Pence for "harassing "him.

"Our wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was harassed last night at the theater by the cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing. This should not happen," Donald Trump tweeted on Saturday morning.

Trump shortly wrote another tweet saying, "The Theater must always be a safe and special place. The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!"

Soon after Trump's remarks, Dixon replied to his tweets on the social networking platform saying, "@realDonaldTrump conversation is not harassment sir. And I appreciate @mike_pence for stopping to listen."

However, Trump did not stop at that and expressed his disappointment again with the Hamilton cast, he even took a jab at Dixon, who plays the role of Aaron Burr in the musical, by saying that he could not even memorize his lines. The tweet was later deleted.

"Very rude and insulting of Hamilton cast member to treat our great future V.P. Mike Pence to a theater lecture. Couldn't even memorize lines!"

A publicist for Hamilton, Sam Rudy said that Pence was requested to stay back to listen to Dixon when he was exiting the theatre. Rudy said that Dixon's statements were not harassment and that it was a "polite request". He added that he can see "no way whatsoever how the cast of 'Hamilton' can be seen as being rude," CNN reported.