Arnold Schwarzenegger believes he would make a great US president
Topics: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Politics
Stewart Perrie
Featured Image Credit: Gaelen Morse/Getty Images. Alex Wong/Getty Images
Topics: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Politics
Arnold Schwarzenegger believes he would have made a fantastic US President.
The legendary actor-turned-politician-turned-actor-again famously left Hollywood in 2003 to become the Governor of California.
It was a huge moment for US politics because here was an Austrian-American man with zero political experience managing to get 1.3 million more votes than the next best candidate.
Arnie was also the second foreign-born man to lead the state of California after Irish-born Governor John G. Downey in 1862.
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He held the position until 2011 and has been making a name for himself back in Tinseltown as well as other ventures.
However, there have always been questions on whether he could have gone further in politics.
Some have called for him to run for the White House, however, due to the American Constitution, that can't happen because he wasn't born in the US.
But that doesn't stop Arnold from wondering what he would have been like as Commander in Chief.
While promoting his new book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, he was asked by the BBC what he thought about the idea.
He replied: "I feel like I would make a great president.
"But I feel that, at the same time, everything I've accomplished was because of America.
"America gave me so many opportunities and the American people were so embracive, and they just received me with open arms.
"There was no-one there that stopped me from my success.
"So the only thing that I can't do, which is run for president, I'm not going to complain about that."
Arnold has previously revealed that he never really intended on getting into politics as his stardom was rising in Hollywood.
"I married into a political family," he explained to LA Weekly, referring to his former wife, Maria Shriver, who was John F. Kennedy's niece.
"You get together with them and you hear about policy, about reaching out to help people. I was exposed to the idea of being a public servant and Eunice and Sargent Shriver became my heroes."
The BBC asked him about the current state of American politics and the thought of Joe Biden and Donald Trump battling it out for the 2024 election.
"I just hope that America finds some really young blood," he said.
"Because to me, it is a little bit odd that we are having a battle between people today in the late 70s and early 80s rather than people that in the 40s and 50s or maybe even younger and have them have a chance at this great, great job."