Clint Eastwood would like everyone to 'just f—ing get over' Donald Trump's comments

(Image credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

published 4 August 2016

It has been four years since Clint Eastwood had a conversation with an empty chair at Mitt Romney's Republican National Convention, and while he calls the incident "silly" now, he has an explanation for it.

"I was standing backstage and I'm hearing everybody say the same thing: 'Oh, this guy's a great guy,'" the actor and director told Esquire's Michael Hainey. "I've got to say something more." Eastwood said he heard "an old Neil Diamond thing and he's going, 'And no one heard at all / Not even the chair.' And I'm thinking, 'That's Obama.' He doesn't go to work. He doesn't go down to Congress and make a deal. What the hell's he doing sitting in the White House? If I were in that job, I'd get down there and make a deal."

Eastwood had a lot to say about politics today. He believes, for example, that Donald Trump is "onto something, because secretly, everybody's getting tired of political correctness, kissing up. That's the kiss-ass generation we're in right now. We're really in a pussy generation." He said "we see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff," but when he was growing up eight decades ago, "those things weren't called racist." Trump's comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel's Mexican heritage were "dumb," he added, but "the press and everybody's going, 'Oh, well, that's racist,' and they're making a big hoodoo out of it. Just f—ing get over it. It's a sad time in history." Eastwood made it clear he has not endorsed anyone in the 2016 election, but between Trump and Hillary Clinton, he'd "have to go for Trump... you know, 'cause she's declared that she's gonna follow in Obama's footsteps." For more of Eastwood's musings, visit Esquire.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.