Actor turned reality TV star Scott Baio endorsed Donald Trump for president on Saturday, telling Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, “It’s very simple. Because when he speaks I understand him. He speaks like I speak.”
“I want him … to go into Washington to blow it up,” the longtime Hollywood conservative said on “Justice With Judge Jeanine.” “I’m fed up. I’m done with them, I’m done with the Republicans. They’ve lied and conned and B.S.’ed me for a very long time now.”
The actor, best known for his role in the 1970s and ’80s sitcoms “Happy Days” and “Charles in Charge,” has recently starred in VH1 reality shows as well as the Nick at Nite sitcom “See Dad Run.”
Baio, who endorsed Mitt Romney in 2012 and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker last year, told Pirro that party affiliation no longer matters to him.
“I no longer consider myself a Republican anymore,” he said. “I’m a conservative independent.”
But he’s not so independent as to consider casting his vote for Trump’s likely Democratic challenger, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “Listen, they’re going to attack whoever the Republican nominee is. And we need somebody to relentlessly, relentlessly attack Hillary,” he said.
“This getting above the fray and not getting in the dirt and ‘we’re better than that’ — it doesn’t work anymore,” he said. “But to win elections nowadays, the Democrats and liberals attack viciously.”
Baio joins a slew of Hollywood stars who have come out in their support of the real estate mogul and reality TV star, including Jon Voight, Kid Rock, Azealia Banks and Hulk Hogan.