Robert Redford said he does not blame on President Donald Trump for being elected. The fault, he said, is with the American people for allowing entertainment and politics to merge.
“I just think he is who he is. You can’t blame him for being who he is. He’s always been like that,” the 81-year-old actor told Esquire magazine in an article published Wednesday. “He’s our fault — that’s how I see it.” (RELATED: Michael Moore, Other Celebs Blame Trump For Charlottesville Riots)
U.S. President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to actor Robert Redford during a ceremony in the White House East Room in Washington, U.S., November 22, 2016. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
“We let him come to where he is,” he added. “I’m not so interested in blaming him; that’s being done enough by others. I’m more interested in: How did this happen? We’ve lost our moral foundation, which allows us to go this far over. So I don’t blame him. I just think he is what he is. We’re the ones who let that happen. We should be looking at ourselves.”
Reford said if he had a chance to speak to Trump he would tell him to “quit” for the benefit of the country.
“Quit. For our benefit,” the actor explained. “Politics right now is in a very dark place, and I think the only place for me is to do what I do — make films, create art, watch it as it evolves. Right now it’s like Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall, and a great fall is happening. The behavior seems to be really dumb.”
“One of the cures is gonna be getting the American people to fully wake up,” he added. “All the American people, particularly young people, because they’re gonna inherit this earth; they’re gonna inherit what we’re doing. And if we have any concerns about kids — which I do — what are you gonna do to make sure they have something to work with?”
He also said comparisons between Richard Nixon and Trump were inaccurate as Nixon was at least an “accomplished politician.”
“I don’t know if you can compare them,” Redford said. “They’re so different. Whatever Nixon was, whatever his dark side, he was an accomplished politician. He was a guy who’d been through the mix, knew the rules. I think on the other side, there’s more ignorance. I just don’t think there’s enough awareness of what’s going on. I can’t compare the two.”