Sylvester Stallone welcomed Donald Trump on stage at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago party on Thursday night, praising him as a “second George Washington.”
The two shook hands before Trump’s keynote speech at the America First Policy Institute gala, which was held at the president-elect’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Many of Trump’s picks to be members of his administration’s Cabinet, such as Matt Gaetz, were also present. During the event, it was announced that North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum has been selected to serve as Secretary of the Interior.
“We’re in the presence of a truly legendary figure. I love legends,” Stallone said in his speech, after opening with a lengthy comparison between Jesus Christ, boxer Rocky Balboa, and Trump himself. “No one in the world could pull back what he did. So I’m in awe.”
“I’m just going to say it, and mean it,” Stallone continued. “When George Washington defended his country, he had no idea he was going to change the world. Because without him you can only imagine what the world would be like. Guess what? We got a second George Washington. Congratulations!”
In an interview in 2016, when Trump became the favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination, Stallone said: diverse“I love Donald Trump. He’s a great Dickensian character. You know what I mean? … But I don’t know how that translates to ‘laugh’ and then ‘run the world.’
Speaking before a MIPCOM panel in October after the publication of his book Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass, diverse Co-editor-in-chief Ramin Sotoudeh noted that Trump expressed his jealousy toward Stallone during his interviews. While Trump was hosting NBC’s “The Apprentice,” his producer Burnett was also working on “The Contender,” with Stallone hosting. Sotoudeh said Trump might claim that “Sylvester Stallone wasn’t good at making TV shows” and that he “couldn’t remember his lines, couldn’t get the words to the announcer.”
“I think we need to let this sink in: Donald Trump has been president for four years, and he has been the leader of the free world for those four years,” Sotoudeh said. “What he still focuses on is the fact that he was a better reality star than Sylvester Stallone.”