Chris Evans Tried To Work With Donald Trump, The President Refused
Chris Evans revealed how he tried to work with President Donald Trump.
This article is more than 2 years old
It’s no secret that many prominent Hollywood figured feel a lot of disdain when it comes to the current President of the United States, Donald Trump. Whether it’s policy, politics, personality, or preference, it is clear Hollywood is not on his side. But that doesn’t mean certain celebrities have not at least attempted to forge a working relationship with President Trump. Captain America Chris Evans recently revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that he asked the president not once, but twice, if he’d want to record a video message for his website A Starting Point, which the president declined.
CHRIS EVANS AND A STARTING POINT
So, what exactly is A Starting Point and what are Chris Evans’ motivations behind it? According to Evans, the idea behind the project came back in 2017. “I was watching the news and there was something I didn’t understand, and I went to Google it. And right away I was in the weeds,” Evans said via Boston. “There was just this mountain of information to sift through. And I thought, ‘What if there was a way that I could get not only concise answers to common questions but get the answers from the elected officials themselves?’” So Evans, along with fellow actor/filmmaker Mark Kassen and medical technology entrepreneur Joe Kiani, built the website in order to help people better understand the machinations of politics with short, easily understandable videos.
On the site, the videos are broken into various, broad topics which include Economy, Education, Environment, Government, Rights, Health, International, and Immigration. These topics feature a series of questions that are then answered by six elected officials from both sides of the spectrum, three Democrats and three Republicans.
While the elected officials offer their opinions and answers, the page also includes links for visitors to read more about each topic. Chris Evans’ goal, beyond better informing the American people, is to also lead them into being more engaged with our political process. “The more people involved in politics, the better,” Evans said. “And hopefully the people who have no experience in this arena will find this site to be an intuitive and friendly access point.”
THAT WOULD BE A “NO”
Chris Evans claims he has well over 200 political participants that have helped his endeavor with A Starting Point. But there was one in particular that decided A Starting Point just wasn’t for him. As Evans told Kimmel, “You have to, right? You have to… I shouldn’t say it that way.”
Of course, Chris Evans was talking about approaching the president to see if he’d like to join in. “No, I asked him, and he said no. He said no twice, and so it’s like ‘Well I did my part.'” It sounds like that was the answer Evans was expecting to get from President Trump all along and that could be because Evans has been very vocal against President Trump and certain comments from the recent past.
Chris Evans put the president on blast (as did many others) when the president tweeted out about leaving the hospital after his COVID scare by also saying “Don’t be afraid of COVID.” Evans replied with, “Don’t be afraid of Covid?! You’ve been under round-the-clock care by the best doctors using the best drugs. Do you really think everyone has access to that?! Sadly, I’m sure you’re aware of that disparity, you just don’t care. This is reckless to a shocking degree, even for you.”
Chris Evans backed this up at a recent democratic fundraiser for Presidential hopeful Joe Biden by taking another shot at the president, “I think the fish rots from the head down, and I think we certainly have someone who is actively trying to divide us.” You can see Jimmy Kimmel’s interview with Chris Evans below. His comments about President Trump come around the 3-minute mark of the interview.
But a “no” from the president didn’t stop Chris Evans and company from moving forward with his project, nor should it. Especially when the goal is to hopefully inform the general public, on both sides, of our political process from the viewpoint of the country leaders and toss them more than just softball questions. It seems to be working because Evans’ website is slowly gaining traction.
Chris Evans also did mention in the Kimmel interview the lengths he needed to go to convince politicians they weren’t being pranked for a movie or some other nefarious reason. He first tried to get their assistance via email, but that didn’t fare. Then he tried adding a video of himself to the email. Again, no dice. So, he eventually took it right to Washington DC and began to win them over. And he accomplished that feat.
On the Today Show, Chris Evans joked about how he is adjusting to life in DC outside of his Captain America persona and no longer having to deal with those Hollywood expectations. “I felt pretty comfortable there,” Evans said via Comicbook. “Hollywood can be intimidating because people expect something out of you. No one expected anything out of me in DC, so when expectations are low, I thrive.”
Chris Evans also explained to People his intention wasn’t ever to get into politics but, “It’s not that I’m specifically drawn to politics. It’s just when you look around, you try to figure out how can you help.” The actor also went on to add, “There’s a lot of things you can do as an actor with your name,” said Evans. “I could be making booze — I don’t discourage anyone from doing that, I love booze — but there’s no denying that I played a certain character, and it just so happens to align with part of my nature in terms of being someone who is politically involved and who cares about the wellbeing of people in this country.” Uh oh, so not only is Evans taking shots at the president, but he also seems to be making comment on those celebrity booze makers. Of course, we say that in jest.
