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Sylvester Stallone has described Donald Trump as the “second George Washington” in a warm-up speech for the President-elect at Mar-a-Lago.
The Hollywood heavyweight attended a black tie gala on Thursday held to celebrate Trump’s election victory that was attended by many of his controversial cabinet picks, including RFK Jr and Matt Gaetz.
“When I made Rocky, if you remember the first image was a picture of Jesus and it said ‘Resurrection, AC Club’,” Stallone told the audience ahead of Trump’s arrival on stage. “I found a church that had been converted into a boxing ring. So the image pans down from Jesus on to Rocky being hit and that moment he was the chosen person, and that’s how I began the journey.
“Something was going to happen, this man was going to go through a metamorphosis and change lives. Just like President Trump.
“We’re in the presence of a really mythical character,” Stallone continued. “I love mythology. This individual does not exist on this planet. Nobody in the world could have pulled off what he pulled off, so I’m in awe.”
“And I’ll just say this, and I mean it,” Stallone went on. “When George Washington defended his country, he had no idea that he was going to change the world. Cause without him, you could imagine what the world would look like. Guess what? We got the second George Washington. Congratulations.”
The Rocky star then welcomed the next president on stage where the pair embraced before Trump delivered a victory lap speech.
Stallone’s praise of the President-elect comes after claims Trump was obsessed over an apparent rivalry with the actor, previously telling a journalist he is “better than Sylvester Stallone at being a reality star.”
Author Ramin Setoodeh interviewed Trump several times for his book, Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass, which originally hit shelves on June 18.
As reported by Variety in October, Setoodeh discussed the Republican presidential nominee while speaking at TV market event Mipcom. He explained that Trump was hosting Mark Burnett’s business-themed reality show, The Apprentice, the same time as Stallone was working with the television producer on the boxing reality show, The Contender.
Setoodeh claimed that Trump became extremely jealous, telling those around him that “Sylvester Stallone wasn’t as good at making TV” and that he “couldn’t remember his lines, couldn’t deliver the words to the prompter.”
Whatever issues the pair or may not have had appeared to have cleared though, as the duo shook hands on the stage in Florida.
And Stallone’s support for the Republican comes in stark contrast to his 80s action rival Arnold Schwarzenegger’s repeated condemnation of Trump during the election campaign.
Schwarzenegger, a Republican who served as California’s governor from 2003 to 2011, criticized both parties in a lengthy post on X Wednesday morning before revealing he will be casting his ballot for the vice president.
“It will just be four more years of bulls*** with no results that makes us angrier and angrier, more divided, and more hateful,” he said in a social media post in October.
