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This past weekend in sports has certainly highlighted the divide between those who support President Donald Trump and those who most definitely do not.
People who had previously supported Trump like Tom Brady, Rex Ryan, Robert Kraft and others expressed shock and disappointment in Trump’s statements about athletes performing peaceful protests.
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Many others outside the world of sports have also expressed deep concern over the growing schism between the two sides. One of those people is long-time United Nations Messenger of Peace George Clooney. Clooney, who has also served on the Council on Foreign Relations, was recently interviewed by The Daily Beast as he made the rounds promoting an upcoming film he directed, Suburbicon.
In the interview, Clooney discussed a number of topics including Hilary Clinton, racism in America, and how some, including Trump, appear to feeding a culture war in America. Here’s what he had to say about the latter…
Trump has been stoking this culture war between “coastal elites” and Middle America—the irony of course being that Trump himself is a “coastal elite.”
Here’s the thing: I grew up in Kentucky. I sold insurance door-to-door. I sold ladies’ shoes. I worked at an all-night liquor store. I would buy suits that were too big and too long and cut the bottom of the pants off to make ties so I’d have a tie to go on job interviews. I grew up understanding what it was like to not have health insurance for eight years. So this idea that I’m somehow the “Hollywood elite” and this guy who takes a shit in a gold toilet is somehow the man of the people is laughable.
People in Hollywood, for the most part, are people from the Midwest who moved to Hollywood to have a career. So this idea of “coastal elites” living in a bubble is ridiculous. Who lives in a bigger bubble? He lives in a gold tower and has twelve people in his company. He doesn’t run a corporation of hundreds of thousands of people he employs and takes care of. He ran a company of twelve people! When you direct a film you have seven different unions all wanting different things, you have to find consensus with all of them, and you have to get them moving in the same direction. He’s never had to do any of that kind of stuff. I just look at it and I laugh when I see him say “Hollywood elite.” Hollywood elite? I don’t have a star on Hollywood Boulevard, Donald Trump has a star on Hollywood Boulevard! Fuck you!
Clooney was also asked if he believes Trump is emboldening white nationalists?
Well, think about it this way: if I was President of the United States and David Duke is praising me and the white nationalists were talking about how I was on their side, the first thing I would do is I would come out and say, “Fuck these guys. Anyone who believes this is not in my camp, I don’t believe it, and I completely reject it.” Don’t play coy and claim that you don’t remember who David Duke is when you were actually running for president 25 years earlier and said that the reason you got out was because David Duke was in the party. That’s just a lie! So what you’re doing is winking at everybody and saying, “It’s OK, come on over, because that’s my base.” Well, that shouldn’t be your base! It’s the simplest thing in the world in politics: “Nazis bad.” It really doesn’t get any easier than that.
Nazis bad. Hmmm…that is pretty simple.
Check out the entire interview by clicking here.