During a speech introducing Donald Trump at the America First Policy Institute Gala held in Palm Beach, Fla. at the Mar-A-Lago Club tonight, Sylvester Stallone called the president-elect “the 2nd George Washington.”
“We’re in the presence of a really mythical character,” he said, as captured in a C-SPAN video posted to X. (You can watch it below.) “I love mythology. And this individual does not exist on this planet. Nobody in the world could have pulled off what he pulled off, so I’m in awe.”
He continued, with the out-of-left-field comparison: “When George Washington defended his country, he had no idea that he was gonna change the world. Because without him, you could imagine what the world would look like. Guess what? We got the 2nd George Washington.”
Earlier on during the brief introduction, the Rocky writer-actor likened Trump to the title boxer in the film series, evoking the opening frame in the original movie, which pans out from a picture of Jesus onto Rocky being hit. (You can watch it below.) “At that moment, he was a chosen person and that’s how I began the journey — something was gonna happen, this man was gonna go through a metamorphosis and change lives, just like President Trump.”
When Trump walked on stage following a short delay (as heard in the pausing of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA”), the two shared a warm and long-held handshake.
Stallone had previously stayed mum about his political endorsements throughout the election cycles in 2016, 2020 and this year, having revealed that he didn’t vote in presidential elections the prior two times. However, he previously told Variety in 2016 that he “love[s]” Trump and views him as a “great Dickensian character.” In 2018, Sly was pictured in the Oval Office alongside Trump as he posthumously pardoned former world champion boxer Jack Johnson.
The annual gala supports the right-wing nonprofit think-tank founded in 2021 to promote Trump’s public policies.
As recently reported exclusively by Deadline, Taylor Sheridan’s Tulsa King Season 2 is outpacing its inaugural installment by 8% in total viewership. The Paramount+ crime drama has averaged more than 10 million global households on the platform five weeks since its premiere.
Rocky’s opening scene:
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