Arnold Schwarzenegger has opened up about his very public feud with President Donald Trump in a new interview with Men’s Journal.
Trump and Schwarzenegger’s seemingly innocent beef began on social media with the president poking fun at the season premiere ratings drop of New Celebrity Apprentice, a show Schwarzenegger took the helm of after Trump won the White House.
“I said, ‘Let’s sit on it for an hour,'” Schwarzenegger says about Trump’s tweets above. “I called my assistant and said, ‘I think what we really should do is request a meeting and go back to New York,’ Schwarzenegger said, “And then we just smash his face into the table.”
Laughing, Schwarzenegger continues saying, “And then I think, ‘We can’t do that, either. I think I have to be above all of that and put him on the spot.'”
That’s when the feud spilled over into public barbs being hurled back-and-forth.
Schwarzenegger sat in front of a camera and challenged Trump to “work for ALL of the American people as aggressively as you worked for your ratings.”
“I think people really reacted well to that response,” Schwarzenegger told Men’s Journal. “I sound more presidential and more diplomatic and more elder-statesman — that’s exactly the way Donald should be.”
Of course, now there’s another chapter to this feud.
Schwarzenegger has since slammed Trump’s nominee for Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt. The action star has also railed against Trump’s executive order temporarily suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, saying it makes America “look stupid.”
Earlier this week, Trump called Schwarzenegger a “total disaster” during the National Prayer Breakfast and prayed for a rise in ratings for the Apprentice.
Schwarzenegger fired back, suggesting that he and Trump switch jobs “so people can finally sleep comfortably again.”
In an attempt to have the last word, Trump tweeted Friday morning that Schwarzenegger “did a really bad job as governor of California” and is “even worse” as the host of The Celebrity Apprentice.
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