Arnold Schwarzenegger believes President Donald Trump is in love with him and says he ‘wants to be me’ as he opens up on their long-running public feud.
In an interview with Men’s Health, Schwarzenegger gave possible explanations for why he has been publicly ridiculed by Trump following his brief and low-rated stint as the replacement Celebrity Apprentice host.
‘He’s in love with me. That’s the reality of it. With Trump, he wants to be me,’ the 72-year-old told the publication.
President Trump first began hurling public insults at Schwarzenegger when the actor and former California governor replaced him as host of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice in 2016 to 2017.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who his set to star in the latest Terminator movie out in November, opened up about his feud with President Donald Trump in an interview with Men’s Health on Tuesday
It became one of the show’s lowest rated seasons and was subsequently canceled.
Trump lashed out on Twitter, saying: ‘Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to great show’.
Schwarzenegger hit back at the time, tweeting: ‘You should think about hiring a new joke writer and a fact checker’.
The Terminator star has also recently criticized Trump for walking away from the climate change accord last year and said at the Hollywood Foreign Press dinner this year that he had ‘nothing nice to say’ about him.
But Schwarzenegger said their relationship wasn’t always so sour.
‘I don’t think he fears me. But I remember that in the old days, when we went to the wrestling matches, the way he admired people with bodies, and the way they would jump around in the ring, and to perform physical stunts and stuff like that – he had great admiration for that,’ Schwarzenegger said in the Men’s Health interview.
‘He asked me, How do you do that, with the movies? I mean, it’s so believable. He drilled down to specific questions that fascinated him. It was about How do you sell something? Like, a scene. How do you go and act out a scene so that I get affected emotionally?
‘He was fascinated by that. How do you do this when you do interviews – that you penetrate through it and you then are totally believable?’
President Trump first began hurling public insults at Schwarzenegger when the actor and former California governor replaced him as host of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice in 2016 to 2017
During the interview, Schwarzenegger also opened up on what being governor of California from 2003 to 2011 taught him.
‘I always complain about Trump not being able to shift from Trump to president. Well, the reason why I say this is because I saw that with myself, that I was not able to shift from Arnold to governor,’ he said.
Schwarzenegger appeared on the cover of Men’s Health with co-star Gabriel Luna ahead of the November release of Terminator: Dark Fate
‘I was still stuck as Arnold. 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.’
Schwarzenegger said that while people across the world may criticize America regarding Trump, he believes they will always still want to come to the country.
‘When I travel around the world, the most common thing that people always come to me about – and I’m a very accessible kind of guy, right? – people come up to me in the gym or at a restaurant and say, ‘America’,’ he said.
‘People everywhere, no matter how much they dump on America, no matter how much people laugh at Trump right now all over the world – they want to come to America. Because they know that one president, one man, cannot change this country.’
Schwarzenegger returned to acting following his stint in politics and now, despite being in his 70s, is about to star alongside Gabriel Luna (left) in Terminator: Dark Fate, which is due out in November
His 36-year-old co-star opened up about meeting Schwarzenegger for the first time, saying: ‘You can easily be overwhelmed because he’s a historical figure’
Schwarzenegger returned to acting following his stint in politics and now, despite being in his 70s, is about to star alongside Gabriel Luna in Terminator: Dark Fate, which is due out in November.
His 36-year-old co-star opened up about meeting Schwarzenegger for the first time, saying: ‘You can easily be overwhelmed because he’s a historical figure’.
‘But he doesn’t place himself on a pedestal that way. He always makes sure to look at people eye-to-eye. And in doing so, I think you disarm the craziness, y’know?’ Luna said.
Luna said he got his body into a good place in anticipation of meeting the Terminator star.
‘I knew I had to get my body into a good place because at the time I was drinking whiskey and smoking cigarettes and all this other stuff I didn’t need to be doing if I intended to play this role,’ he said.
‘I know I’d eventually have to stand in front of this guy and my motivation was, I want him to see me and see a formidable foe. I don’t want him to see me and think, I could squash this guy with my thumbs.’
He said he also once asked Schwarzenegger’s advice for playing a Terminator.
‘I only asked him once when we were in the gym and he let it be known to me that he wanted me to create something of my own. But what he was able to offer when I pressed him a little further was that it’s effortless.
‘Everything has to be done in an effortless way. When you fire a weapon, you fire it from the hip – there’s no reason to look down the sight [of your gun], because you have a target already, in your eyes… No blinking, just automatic gunfire.’