Clint Eastwood, the Republican actor/director and conservative icon who played “Dirty” Harry Callahan, served as mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, and spoke to an empty chair at the 2012 Republican National Convention, voiced his support for Donald Trump in an upcoming interview published in Esquire. “That’s a tough one, isn’t it? I’d have to go for Trump… you know, ’cause [Hillary’s] declared that she’s gonna follow in Obama’s footsteps,” Eastwood says. “There’s been just too much funny business on both sides of the aisle. She’s made a lot of dough out of being a politician. I gave up dough to be a politician. I’m sure that Ronald Reagan gave up dough to be a politician.”
Eastwood, who said he hasn’t officially endorsed anyone yet and admitted “I haven’t talked to Trump,” also railed against what he perceives as a culture of “political correctness” in America. “We’re really in a pussy generation. Everybody’s walking on eggshells. We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren’t called racist,” said Eastwood. (Eastwood, 86, grew up in the 1940s and 1950s, before the civil-rights movement and second-wave feminism, and was a teenager when the U.S. government was placing Japanese people in internment camps.)
He added, “You know, [Trump’s] a racist now because he’s talked about this judge [Gonzalo Curiel]. And yeah, it’s a dumb thing to say. I mean, to predicate your opinion on the fact that the guy was born to Mexican parents or something. He’s said a lot of dumb things. So have all of them. Both sides. But everybody—the press and everybody’s going, ‘Oh, well, that’s racist,’ and they’re making a big hoodoo out of it. Just fucking get over it. It’s a sad time in history.” Judge Curiel, who is hearing the case alleging fraud at Trump University, was repeatedly criticized by the GOP presidential nominee for being biased due to his being “Mexican” (he is an American, born in Indiana to a steel mill worker). “I’m building a wall, it’s an inherent conflict of interest,” said Trump.
Read it at Esquire
