“Terminator” star and former Republican Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on Wednesday as the only way to “turn the page” on Donald Trump’s divisiveness.
The 77-year-old former bodybuilder said that although he had issues with both major parties, Trump’s rhetoric calling the United States “trash to the world” had “enraged” him.
Just days before the November 5 election, Schwarzenegger becomes the latest of dozens of prominent former Republican officials – including former Vice President Dick Cheney – to endorse the Democratic nominee for president instead of Trump.
The actor said, “For someone like me who talks to people all over the world and still knows that America is a shining city on a hill, to call America… a dustbin for the world is so treasonous, This makes me angry.”
“I will always be an American before I’m a Republican. So, this week, I’m voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” he wrote on X.
Since leaving office in 2011 after two terms as governor of the most populous US state, Schwarzenegger has supported environmental issues, small businesses and immigration reform.
Following the attack on the US Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters on January 6, 2021, Schwarzenegger compared the attack to the Nazi Kristallnacht riots in his native Austria, and called the Republican a “failed leader” who would “go down in history” as Will go down in the “Worst President Ever.”
“He doesn’t like any party at the moment,” he said on Wednesday.
“My Republicans have forgotten the beauty of the free market, fueled the deficit and rejected the election results,” he said.
“Democrats are no better at dealing with the deficit, and I worry that their local policies are hurting our cities with increased crime.”
However, a vote for Trump “will just result in four more years of nonsense with no results that will make us angrier, more divided and more hateful,” he said.
“Vote this week,” he implored. “Turn the pages and put this junk behind us.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
