Jesse Ventura Discusses Donald Trump, Similarities Between Politicians & Wrestlers

WWE hall of famer Jesse “The Body” Ventura was recently interviewed by The Atlantic, to promote his new book, “Sh*t Politicians Say.” He discusses a number of topics, including Donald Trump, similarities between politicians and wrestlers, and The Rock running for political office.

Below are some excerpts from the interview:

Newkirk: There’s a lot of stuff in there about Trump. A lot of the things that Donald Trump said. Is he singled out?

Ventura: No, not a bit. In fact, you’ll notice—it’s just that he says more! You know if you’ve got a person that will, for lack of better terms, stick their foot in their mouths more often. If you notice in the book, George W. Bush got a whole chapter, Sarah Palin got one, because they seem to be the ones to say the most ridiculous things at the most ridiculous times. And so naturally if you’re more talented at doing that you’re gonna get more air time, or more page time in the book. And that’s how we did it, certain people say a lot more, so we got “Crap the Republicans say,” “Crap Democrats say,” and then we break it down to those individuals, and the Bush administration … Oh my, you could write a whole book on them alone.

Newkirk: With Trump, I guess there’s a sense that he’s an outsider and he’s come from the world of entertainment and he has links to the world of wrestling as well. Are there things that you’ve noted as similarities with him?

Ventura: You know, not at all. Donald’s link to wrestling was when I first met him I think at Wrestlemania 4 and 5 or 5 and 6. We did two of them at Trump’s place in Atlantic City, New Jersey, so that was the initial tie with Donald. And then I knew Donald out at the American Century golf tournaments. He was out there when I used to play. So I’ve known Donald Trump now for quite a while. In fact, he even flew to Minnesota in support of me when I ran for governor.

Donald Trump is not a Republican. Donald Trump has been an Independent truly his whole life. He just chose to go after the nomination with the Republican party, just like Bernie Sanders did with the Democrats. Like I initially stated when they [ran], I said I was ecstatic over it because they were destroying the two parties and I thought that was wonderful. As you know I despise these parties; I think they’re the problem, they’re not the solution. And I believe we should ban political parties, and the forefathers agree with me.

On similarities between wrestlers and politicians:

…Many of these elected officials are just like wrestlers in the public and then they’re the opposite in private. Case in point, do you remember a few years ago who was some congressman from Florida who voted against every gay bill and it turned out he was gay, do you remember that? Yeah, so there’s a classic example of it. This guy who was gay hid the fact that he was gay, voted like he hated gays, and so he created a personality that was completely averse to what he really was. And wrestling’s the same way. You know, Jesse “The Body” Ventura, what you see in wrestling may be nothing like what Jesse Ventura is outside the ring. That’s a performance, you know? And politicians are the same way. Who you see may be nothing like who they really are. They’re giving you their political television personality, not necessarily the person that they truly are. So it’s things like that that make wrestling truly an easy step to go from wrestling into the political arena because you’re so prepared for it on the speaking end. Well when I ran for governor, I never used one prepared speech ever.

Newkirk: I want to ask you about Dwayne [The Rock] Johnson. He’s made some noise, or people have been making noise for him about him running—

Ventura: Running for what?

Newkirk: Political office.

Ventura: Why?

Newkirk: Because he fits exactly what you were saying. He is a person who knows how to speak, how to present himself and how to self himself.

Ventura: I would tell Dwayne Johnson don’t bother with it. You have a phenomenal career in Hollywood. Why would you want to go into politics? Ride the Hollywood horse until it falls. Are you kidding me? Politics, he can’t earn near the money he’s making. Unless he just truly wants to make a difference I guess. But, Dwayne’s a very talented man, no doubt about it. And I would encourage him not to waste it in the political arena.

You can find the entire interview at this link.

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