WASHINGTON – Actor and political activist Alec Baldwin, who plays President Trump on Saturday Night Live, said tonight that he wants to run for public office and that he would make a “good president.”
Baldwin and Kurt Andersen released their political satire, You Can’t Spell America Without Me: The Really Tremendous Inside Story of My Fantastic First Year as President Donald J. Trump, a week ago.
During a discussion at George Washington University about the new book, Baldwin was directly asked if he would run for president in 2020 against Trump.
“I got married again. I love my wife more than anything. We have three little kids and another one coming. To run for office is something that I want to do but it a) doesn’t seem to be practical with my lifestyle now with my children, and No. 2, I’m not quite sure that Trump has left it open for non-traditional candidates to move, but really, the pendulum might swing the other way and people are going to want people with real, bonafide credentials as the head of state house, a governor,” Baldwin said.
“I don’t know if people post-Trump will want someone again who has never held elected office. I mean, I care. Do I think I would be a good president? Yeah, I think I would be a good president. I really think I would. No. 1, I would enjoy it. I would be, ‘Get me a chocolate cake from the hotel. I’m so depressed.’ That wouldn’t be me at all. I would enjoy that window on the world, you know, and try to get things done,” he added.
Andersen floated the idea of Baldwin running for mayor of New York City.
“I’m just not quite sure what the result of Trump would be, electoral politics-wise,” replied Baldwin, who attended George Washington University.
Baldwin, who is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the Iowa Democratic Party’s fall gala on Nov. 27, said he thought President Trump would “take a deep breath” and “come to his senses” after winning the election and decide to focus on the “power and prestige” of the presidency.
“The president of the United States, more than anyone alive, more than anyone alive in the world, has a view of humanity that you could never get somewhere else. You travel around the world and you meet the best and the brightest around the world. You see real human suffering and people who are trying to heal that suffering,” said Baldwin.
“You’ll come home and you meet the crème de la crème of the arts, letters, academia, politics, all you do is shake hands and go to dinners and have photo-ops with the greatest Americans alive or the neediest Americans alive,” he added. “And I thought to myself, my God, he would finally come to his senses and say, ‘what a tremendous opportunity this is for me as a human being.’ Forget about it. Forget it. And that alone, I thought to my myself, we can’t be mean enough to this guy.”
Trump has tweeted about Baldwin and his impersonation.
“Watched Saturday Night Live hit job on me. Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. Media rigging election!” he wrote in October 2016.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member