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Actor Josh Brolin called President Donald Trump a “genius” in marketing during an interview on Saturday, as he pushed back on the notion that the president was going to remain in office after his term is up.
“I’m not scared of Trump, because even though he says he’s staying forever, it’s just not going to happen. And if it does, then I’ll deal with that moment. But having been a friend of Trump before he was president, I know a different guy,” he told The Independent in an interview.
Brolin told the outlet that he knew the president as an entrepreneur after he met Trump following his appearance on “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” He said he was interested in Trump building a hotel “in the middle of a cesspool city during the late seventies.” He added, “Now it’s power unmitigated, it’s unregulated.”
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“There is no greater genius than him in marketing – he takes the weakness of the general population and fills it. And that’s why I think a lot of people feel that they have a mascot in him. I think it’s much less about Trump than it is about the general population and their need for validation,” Brolin said.
Josh Brolin attends Netflix’s “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” Los Angeles premiere on Nov. 17, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. President Donald Trump participates in a call with U.S. service members from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Thanksgiving Day on Nov. 27, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty Images for Netflix; Pete Marovich/Getty Images)
Brolin was critical of Trump’s bid for the presidency in 2020, rejecting it in an Instagram post.
“I refuse to believe that Donald Trump is our core version of American masculinity,” Brolin wrote at the time. “The America that was great was never based on creating hate and conspiracy in order to win. There have been a few, but none has lasted. Donald Trump has lied over 50,000 documented times, but we still are willing to let it go because he speaks to an American demographic that no longer felt masculine.”
Brolin also spoke to The Independent about playing Monsignor Wicks in the new movie, “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.”
Kathryn Boyd Brolin and Josh Brolin attend Netflix’s “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” Los Angeles premiere on Nov. 17, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty Images for Netflix)
The movie is the third in the “Knives Out” series and stars Brolin along with Daniel Craig, Glenn Close, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner and Kerry Washington.
Brolin told the outlet that his character was not based on the president.
“I could make something up and say it was rooted in a kind of Trumpian greed,” he said. “Wicks garners a sense of power, then there are no boundaries.”
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President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after speaking to troops via video from his Mar-a-Lago estate on Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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