Robert Redford, not always the president's man

Donald Trump has paid tribute to Robert Redford, who has died at the age of 89, telling reporters as he left the White House for his jolly in the UK: “Robert Redford had a series of years where there was nobody better.” He added: “There was a period of time when he was the hottest. I thought he was great.”

Redford’s own stance on the US president, however, blew a little more hot and cold. Back in 2015, he told Larry King: “Look he’s got such a big foot in his mouth, I’m not sure you’re going to get it out. But on the other hand, I’m glad he’s in there.” He added: “I’m glad he’s in there because him being the way he is, and saying what he says the way he says it, I think shakes things up and I think that’s very needed. Because on the other side, it’s so bland, it’s so boring, it’s so empty.”

Four years later, as Trump faced calls for impeachment, the actor and director appeared to change tack. “It is painfully clear we have a president who degrades everything he touches. A person who does not understand (or care?) that his duty is to defend our democracy,” Redford wrote in a comment piece for the Washington Post, when it was allowed to publish pieces like that.

Suggested Reading

Trump is terrible, but this state visit is worth every penny of £15m

Jonty Bloom

Later the same year he confessed to having mixed thoughts, admitting he wanted to “give the guy a chance” when Trump was first elected. But he concluded that: “Instead of the United States of America, we are now defined as the Divided States of America”.

In 2020, Redford publicly backed Joe Biden for the presidency. And in an interview in 2021, he revealed he had rewatched his own performance in All the President’s Men just a few days earlier, saying: “I was just taken back how appropriate it was, how timely it was and how little has really changed. We don’t have Nixon anymore, we have Trump.”

That interview was with the former WaPo journalist Bob Woodward – who Redford portrayed in a film about a corrupt US president, which Trump would no doubt decry today as fake news.