Josh Brolin opens up about former friendship with “genius” Donald Trump
Knives Out actor Josh Brolin has opened up about his former friendship with the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
The actor became acquainted with the former The Apprentice star over a decade ago, when they both worked together on the set of Oliver Stone’s Wall Street sequel, the 2010 film Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
Though the President’s role was removed from the final cut, the pair met on set. Speaking with The Independent, Brolin was asked about Trump. More specifically, he was asked whether his character in Knives Out 3, Monsignor Wicks, was based on Trump.
Though the character is pompous and ignorant, Brolin denied basing it on Trump. At a push, he said, he “could make something up and say it was rooted in a kind of Trumpian greed.”
Looking toward his current, tumultuous presidency, Brolin confessed, “I’m not scared of Trump, because even though he says he’s staying forever, it’s just not going to happen. And if it does, then I’ll deal with that moment.”
He added, “But having been a friend of Trump before he was president, I know a different guy.”
Brolin reflected on his earlier encounters with the former actor, admitting that now he represents “power unmitigated, it’s unregulated.”
Brolin took a stab at why exactly he is so popular in America, and confessed that he believed that “there is no greater genius than him in marketing – he takes the weakness of the general population and fills it.”
He continued, “And that’s why I think a lot of people feel that they have a mascot in him. I think it’s much less about Trump than it is about the general population and their need for validation.”
Brolin’s latest venture, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, will arrive on Netflix on December 12th, 2025. Watch the official trailer below.
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