Meryl Streep lambasted US president elect Donald Trump at Sunday's (January 8) Golden Globes, warning that "disrespect invites disrespect".

The actress made the comments while collecting the Cecil B DeMille award at the ceremony. She said that one performance this year that "stunned" her was when Trump mocked a disabled reporter at a rally.

An emotional Streep said: "There was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good, there was nothing good about it, but it was effective and it did its job.

“It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter. Someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it and I still can’t get it out of my head because it wasn’t in a movie, it was real life."

She added: "This instinct to humiliate, when it’s modelled by someone in the public platform. By someone powerful, it filters down into everyone’s life because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect, violence invites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose."

Streep also said that journalists would be given more protection as they will be vital in holding people like Trump to account.

Follow us: @Pressparty on Twitter / Pressparty on Facebook.

Watch the speech in full below: