Josh Brolin says he was friends with Donald Trump before Trump became president, and that he knew “a different guy.” In a November 29, 2025 interview with The Independent, Brolin also called Trump a marketing genius and explained why he believes some people respond to him. Those are Brolin’s recollections and opinions, not independently verified accounts or measured conclusions.
What Josh Brolin said about knowing Trump
In Patrick Smith’s Saturday Interview for The Independent, published while Brolin was promoting Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, the actor described himself as having been a friend of Trump before Trump became president.
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“But having been a friend of Trump before he was president, I know a different guy,” Brolin said. His account does not establish how long or how close the friendship was; the interview presents it as his personal recollection.
Brolin said the Trump he knew was a builder and entrepreneur. He recalled being intrigued by the idea of someone building a $400m hotel “in the middle of a cesspool city during the late Seventies.” He added, “I’m sure there was a lot of corruption involved.” Both the project description and the speculation about corruption were Brolin’s remarks, not independently verified findings in the interview.
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Why Brolin called Trump a marketing genius
Brolin’s assessment was blunt: “there is no greater genius than him in marketing – he takes the weakness of the general population and fills it.” He went on to say: “And that’s why I think a lot of people feel that they have a mascot in him. I think it’s much less about Trump than it is about the general population and their need for validation.”
These comments express Brolin’s interpretation of Trump’s appeal. The interview offers no study or statistic measuring that appeal, and Brolin’s explanation should not be mistaken for one.
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Was Monsignor Wicks based on Trump?
Brolin played Monsignor Jefferson Wicks in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. He said Wicks was not specifically based on Trump. Brolin allowed that he could claim a connection to “a kind of Trumpian greed,” but said that was not the character’s basis. He did observe that once Wicks “garners a sense of power, then there are no boundaries.” That comparison is a qualified observation about a character trait, not evidence that Wicks is a Trump stand-in.
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The interview also discusses Brolin’s life and names his memoir, From Under the Truck. It is separate from the source of his comments about Trump.
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