Arnold Schwarzenegger Quips Back At Trump’s ‘Pray For Arnold’ Jab

Last Friday, Donald Trump signed a controversial executive order that indefinitely suspends admissions of Syrian refugees into the United States, in what Trump called an “extreme vetting” of immigrants.

Titled “Protection of The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” the order prevents people from “terror-prone” countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days and suspends the US Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days. The order has sparked a multitude of protests at major airports nationwide, as well as outrage from celebrities and activists.

Among the infuriated is former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who spoke his thoughts in an interview on Monday with Extra.

“I think they were hasty about it,” Schwarzenegger said of the executive order. “To go and ban people who have a green card, that means that the United States of America has given you permission to work here permanently and you are on the way to permanent citizenship… I was in that position… It’s crazy, it’s crazy and makes us look stupid when the White House is ill-prepared to put this kind of executive order out there.”

Schwarzenegger added in a more hopeful tone, “You go in there new, you have a new team and mistakes are made; I hope this is a wake-up call for them.”

President Trump Responds to Schwarzenegger’s Criticism

Following the former Governor’s criticisms, President Trump took it upon himself to respond at Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast. Trump was the former star on The Apprentice, and was replaced by Schwarzenegger when he ran for president.

“We had tremendous success on The Apprentice, and when I ran for president I had to leave the show,” Trump began. “That’s when I knew for sure I was doing it, and they hired a big, big movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger to take my place, and we know how that turned out. The ratings went right down the tubes.”

He then jested, “I want to just pray for Arnold if we can — for those ratings.”

The audience responded with tepid laughter.

Schwarzenegger didn’t just take the jab in silence. Shortly after Trump’s speech, Schwarzenegger responded on Twitter with a video of himself, saying, “Hey Donald, I have a great idea. Why don’t we switch jobs? You take over TV because you’re such an expert in ratings and I take over your job and then people can finally sleep comfortably again, hmm?”

 

Schwarzenegger’s The New Celebrity Apprentice airs on NBC Monday nights.