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 to celebrate Trump’s election victory that was attended by many of his cabinet picks, including RFK Jr and Matt Gaetz.
“We’re in the presence of a really mythical character,” Stallone said, before adding that “nobody could have pulled off what Trump did”.
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.
