Actress Samaire Armstrong endorsed President Donald Trump in a seven-minute video on Instagram. The star, who’s had roles on The O.C. and Sons of Anarchy, took a distinctly partisan stance against “the Left mob,” explaining to fans why she will be voting Republican in the 2020 presidential election. A few weeks later, Armstrong’s statements are still fueling controversy.
Armstrong said that she was sharing her opinion on U.S. politics “at the cost of everything, because it is my right. It is your right to refute it.” She also specified she is not necessarily a Republican or a conservative, and that her support for Trump is outside of the two-party system. “I’m actually an independent,” she said. “I do look at both sides of the party system and assess what’s going on.”
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Still, Armstrong’s rhetoric strongly mirrored that of the president, and some of the conspiracy theories he and his supporters promote. She said that high-profile Democrats like former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are “out of their minds.” She also accused “the Left” in general of fawning over former President Barack Obama for no real reason.
“‘Oh, Obama, our first Black President, this is so awesome…’” she said sarcastically. “What did he do? What was his success other than being a Black President? Did Chicago get any better? You’re part of the problem because you’ve been duped into believing that the Democratic Party are for the people, and this idea — that’s been massly pushed by the media — that Republicans are naturally racist people is insulting, frightening, and dangerous.”
In the comments, critics argued that Armstrong — who is of Scottish and Italian descent — was speaking out of turn about issues that she did not have the perspective to understand. While Armstrong argued that Democrats had not done enough to dismantle systemic racism, critics countered that Trump had done too much to facilitate it.
“You’re a white woman who’s in the film and TV industry so you have money maybe not a lot of money but you have money… so my point is you really don’t have anything to worry about for your future,” one person wrote. “Your son will never have to worry about anything either being a white male in this country.. African-American of people Latino people we are going to have more hurdles to jump… I’m a Hispanic woman working in a supermarket barely making ends meet.”
Armstrong’s endorsement aside, the polls show Trump trailing behind Biden in the 2020 presidential election. According to a report by The Guardian, Biden is leading by about 2.3 points at the time of this writing.
