Brad Pitt doesn't seem to be a fan of Donald Trump.

"I can't bring myself to think that Trump will be in charge," he told T: The New York Times Style Magazine in an interview published Thursday. "In the simplest terms, what brings us together is good, and what separates us is bad."

But the Oklahoma native who lived in Missouri before shipping off to Hollywood kind of gets why so many people in Red States are ardent Trump supporters.

"Most Americans don't have time to watch CNN and Fox and Al Jazeera," he said. "They're trying to make the rent, get the kids fed, they're tired when they get home and they want to forget about everything. And so suddenly when this voice comes in—and it doesn't have to be a voice of substance—saying he's fed up with all of this, that's the part that hooks into the DNA."

A Trump supporter, he continued, is "fighting against just about everything."

It's a pretty measured and nuanced view from one of the world's richest and most elite Hollywood movie stars. Many of his Hollywood colleagues—including co-stars and friends—have openly blasted Trump. George Clooney, for instance, assured the foreign press in May that Trump would not win the presidency.

"There's not going to be a President Donald Trump," Clooney said during a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival. "That's not going to happen. Fear is not going to be ... what drives our country. We're not going to be scared of Muslims or immigrants or women. We're not actually afraid of anything. We're not going to use fear. So that's not going to be an issue."

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As much Pitt seems to understand why some Americans support Trump, he also appears mystified over the notion of what it means for Trump to take back the country.

"What does he even mean, take our country back? Would someone please explain that to me?" Pitt said to T magazine. "Where'd it go?"

The sociologist Russell Hochschild more or less explained why to Vox.com. Speaking about Trump supporters, Hochschild told Vox.com:

Think of people waiting in a long line that stretches up a hill. And at the top of that is the American dream. And the people waiting in line felt like they'd worked extremely hard, sacrificed a lot, tried their best, and were waiting for something they deserved. And this line is increasingly not moving, or moving more slowly [i.e., as the economy stalls].



Then they see people cutting ahead of them in line. Immigrants, blacks, women, refugees, public sector workers. And even an oil-drenched brown pelican getting priority. In their view, people are cutting ahead unfairly. And then in this narrative, there is Barack Obama, to the side, the line supervisor who seems to be waving these people (and the pelican) ahead. So the government seemed to be on the side of the people who were cutting in line and pushing the people in line back.



And that point Pitt seems to get. "When things are going wrong and we can't find the reason for it, we just start creating enemies," he told T magazine.

Read T's full interview with Pitt here.

Michael Sebastian Michael Sebastian was named editor-in-chief of Esquire in June 2019 where he oversees print and digital content, strategy and operations.

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