Sean Penn is preparing for the worst of Trump 2.0 and thinks everyone else should too.
Penn discussed the president’s stated plans with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to deport American citizens to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison on a recent episode of journalist Jim Acosta’s self-titled podcast.
“Before Bukele gets to that point where he’s dealing with another leader, we should consider worst-case scenarios,” the two-time Oscar winner said.
“I do think it’s a reasonable theory that Donald Trump is not unlike the spouse of someone who leaves him, perhaps for another, who then murders their former partner, because if they can’t have her, nobody can,” Penn continued. “I think Donald Trump, in his solipsism, may have that relationship with the world, and that this destruction is in part a power play.”
When asked if he thinks Trump will attempt to unconstitutionally extend his presidency in 2028 by running for a third term (a move the president has previously hinted at, but recently backed away from), Penn was even more dire: “I think he might try to destroy the world before he ages out of life.”
The 64-year-old star of Milk and Mystic River has long been forthright with his progressive political views. Penn was a tireless critic of President George W. Bush, visiting Baghdad in 2002 ahead of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq the following year to urge a detente between the two nations.
Two decades on, he remains outspoken, increasingly fusing his acting with his activism in the form of films like the 2021 documentary Citizen Penn and gestures like lending Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy one of his Oscar statuettes in 2022.
“When you win, bring it back to Malibu,” Penn told the leader amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
That September, Penn’s criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin and support of Zelenskyy got him permanently banned from entering Russia, along with fellow Putin critic Ben Stiller.
Ukrainian Presidency / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty
Sean Penn and Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2022
Penn may be more dedicated to his politics than the average entertainment-industry mainstay, but he’s far from alone in Hollywood in his criticism of Trump.
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Robert De Niro continues his unceasing verbal onslaught on the president, saying in September, “He’s a jerk, an idiot. Who wants to meet a clown like that?” Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo took aim at Trump’s harsh immigration policy on a March episode of The View, wondering, “Why are old white men the only ones who are allowed to be felons?”
You can watch the rest of Penn’s interview on the May 1 episode of The Jim Acosta Show above.
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