“Captain America” may cut ties with America’s most patriotic football team simply because the quarterback supported President Trump.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, actor Chris Evans said that if Tom Brady is a persistent Trump supporter, then he may have to call it quits with Brady.
“I really hope he’s not a Trump supporter,” Evans told THR. “I’m just hoping he’s one of those guys that maybe supported him and now regrets it. Maybe he thought it was going to be different — and even that bothers me — but maybe there’s a chance now he just thinks Trump’s an absolute dumb sh**, which he is. If he doesn’t, if he’s still on that Trump train, I might have to cut ties. It’s really tough.”
According to HuffPost, the Boston native has long been a New England Patriots fan and is one of their fiercest promoters on social media. While Evans loves the team, he has never met Tom Brady and doesn’t have any plans to.
Though Brady admitted his Trump support in 2015, which was followed by an endorsement from coach Bill Belichick on the eve of the 2016 election, Brady’s open support of the president has wavered throughout Trump’s White House tenure. During the NFL National Anthem kneeling controversy, Brady openly distanced himself from President Trump’s criticism of the kneelers.
“I respect why people are doing what they are doing. And they’re doing it for different reasons, and that’s okay,” Brady told Oprah Winfrey in 2018. “You know, you can do things for your reason. They can do things for their reason, and you have respect for that. But, I thought it was great.”
“I’ve been playing sports long enough [to know] everyone comes from something different, and I think showing respect for everybody, in a locker room, with a team of guys trying to go in the same direction — you better have that empathy for everybody. That’s what sports are about,” he continued.
In 2017, Brady outright called President Trump’s rhetoric regarding the National Anthem kneelers “divisive.”
“I think everyone has the right to do whatever they want to do. If you don’t agree, that is fine. You can voice your disagreement, I think that is great. It’s part of our democracy. As long as it is done in a peaceful, respectful way, that is what our country has been all about,” Brady said during a radio show appearance.
In the same interview with THR, Evans said that he would willingly alienate half of his audience if it means criticizing President Trump. “You don’t want to alienate half your audience,” he said. “But I’d be disappointed in myself if I didn’t speak up. Especially for fear of some monetary repercussion or career damage — that just feels really gross to me.”
Evans wishing to sever himself from Trump supporters to the point of alienating “half of his audience” follows the actor coming under criticism earlier this month from progressive trolls for daring to meet with conservative Congressman Dan Crenshaw.