In a new interview for Men’s Health, former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger talked about another entertainer-turned-politician: Donald Trump.
“I always complain about Trump not being able to shift from Trump to president,” he told the magazine, noting he says it because he himself was unable to “shift from Arnold to governor.”
“I was still stuck as Arnold,” he explained. “Arnold always gets things done. I forced my way in there, then I do it and do it and do it and do it, until it gets done. And I felt the same thing I can do with politics. But I learned quickly that that’s really not the way it works. You got to be able to bring people together. It takes much more time, much more effort, but that’s just the way it is. If you don’t like that, don’t get into politics.”
As for the public jabs the president has taken at Schwarzenegger, who became the host of the low-rated and final season of “Celebrity Apprentice” after Trump absconded, the actor had a simple explanation: “I think he really–he’s in love with me. That’s the reality of it. With Trump, he wants to be me.”
Schwarzenegger has made that claim in the past, telling Michael Smerconish the theory in 2017.
Trump tore into Schwarzenegger for the low ratings in January of 2017, when he was both president-elect and a remaining executive producer on the program.