Robert Redford on Donald Trump

[Beringia]

You did All the President’s Men, the landmark film on Watergate and Nixon. We hear Trump compared to Nixon. How do you see them?

I don’t know if you can compare them. 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.



If you found yourself one-on-one with Trump, what would you want to say to him most urgently?

“Quit. For our benefit.” 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.

That’s another thing that’s depressing: certain attitudes in Congress. They assume that you’re dumb; they can take advantage of you being dumb. I find that offensive. It insults our intelligence. They’re playing us for dumb and they’re being dumb in doing it. For me, that’s one of the reasons the pendulum is against the wall. But I believe that’s gonna change. I think those people, the McConnells, are not helping us at all. They’re taking us backward in time.



Trump is a businessman, but he is such a creature of the entertainment world. It feels that the entertainment industry is more entwined with politics than ever before.

I just think he is who he is. You can’t blame him for being who he is. He’s always been like that. He’s our fault—that’s how I see it. We let him come to where he is. 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.


full interview
http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a12184470/robert-redford-2017-interview/

[roscoeroscoe]

1. Well said

Don't blame Trump, blame the voters

[mnhtnbb]

2. Redford is right. Trump is who he is: a con man

Always has been and ain't gonna' change.

That brings us to how he was able to con so many people that he got close enough to take the election.

America should be collectively looking in the mirror to find out how and what we've become, because we have lost
our moral foundation--if we ever had one--and it's not a pretty sight.