Bryan Cranston believes Donald Trump “loves this county,” even if he may not agree with the GOP presidential frontrunner’s campaign rhetoric or policy proposals.
The 60-year-old Breaking Bad star told CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield on Tuesday that finger-pointing and highly charged political rhetoric have contributed to widespread dysfunction in Washington, D.C.
The first step in bringing people together, he argued, is to listen to what people on the other side of the ideological divide are saying.
“I want to promulgate the idea that just because someone has a different opinion than yours it does not make them the enemy,” Cranston said.
“So I will say right here, right now, on national television, that I believe Donald Trump loves this country,” he continued. “I truly believe that and I know he does. It’s just that his approach on how to remedy America’s problems differ greatly from what I think should happen.”
The four-time Emmy Award-winner also said that celebrities, including Trump, are given a platform — whether “rightly or wrongly” — with which to share their opinion with the world.
“The first thing I do when anybody talks about some film they’ve seen, or Breaking Bad or something, and it didn’t work for them, I support their opinion, as opposed to trying to tell them, or change their opinion or tell them they’re wrong. How you feel is how you feel,” Cranston continued.
“So if I were to meet a Trump supporter, the first thing I would want to discuss what are the issues that led you to that decision, and I want to know about that,” he added. “And not to make them wrong, but just understand.”
This isn’t the first time that Cranston — who next plays President Lyndon B. Johnson in HBO’s All The Way, premiering Saturday — has said kind things about Trump. In August, the actor told Nerdist that he likes the GOP candidate’s “candor.”
“There’s something so refreshing about shaking up that world that is all about being handled and here comes this loose cannon who has terrible ideas and would be a horrible president, but there’s something great about his ‘I-don’t-give-a-shit’ attitude that really kind of keeps others honest,” he said at the time.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum