Actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed Wednesday he is convinced his own skills and leadership abilities would combine to make him a “great” U.S. president.
“I feel like I would make a great president,” the unabashed 75-year-old said in an interview with the BBC. “But I feel that, at the same time, everything I’ve accomplished was because of America.”
Schwarzenegger is barred from running because he was born in Austria, where he lived until he was 19. The U.S. Constitution specifies the holder of the highest office in the land must be a “natural-born citizen.”
Still, that doesn’t mean the former bodybuilder has lost all hope of one day occupying the White House despite legal impediments.
“I mean OK there is the constitution,” he conceded in the interview with the British state broadcaster. “We need some immigration reform, absolutely, to change that. But it would be a little bit selfish if I go out and try to change the law.”
A registered Republican, he served as the 38th governor of California from 2003 to 2011, and admits to the love he feels for the country that gave him so many chances at life.
“America gave me so many opportunities and the American people were so embracive, and they just received me with open arms,” he said. “There was no one there that stopped me from my success.”
The actor drew plenty of public criticism during the coronavirus pandemic when he called non-mask-wearers “schmucks” and said “screw your freedom.”
As for the battle for president in 2024, Schwarzenegger said he hopes America finds “young blood.”
“To me, it is a little bit odd that we are having a battle between people today in the late seventies and early eighties,” he said, alluding to the ages President Joe Biden, 80, and likely Republican challenger Donald Trump, 77.
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