West Wing star Martin Sheen blasted Donald Trump and his cabinet members Monday, saying he’s “convinced” their meetings “smell of ego and fear and false worship.”
“When you look at this group of people at the round table in the White House, the cabinet room, every one of those people look across the table and they do not see anyone who is better than they are. They generally see a reflection of their worst selves,” Sheen told Wallace during a live taping of MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace The Best People podcast.
“There’s no heroes in there. There’s no music. There’s no laughter. There’s no self-effacement. There’s no joy in that room.”
Sheen played president Josiah “Jed” Bartlet on The West Wing for all of the hit series’ seven seasons from 1999 to 2006.
“I couldn’t do anything else with my life after watching the West Wing week after week,” Wallace told Sheen on the episode released Monday. She called out Trump’s “bullying” as she reflected on the show’s continued popularity today.
“It’s not just the enduring connection that I think fans have to the West Wing. It’s almost in the absence of something that everyone wants their kids to emulate,” she said, “I’m not even sure a MAGA family wants their kids to emulate Donald Trump. I’m not sure about that, but I don’t think so. His language and his bullying and his conduct online alone.”
Trump made Wallace a personal target in August when he called her a “loser, with bad ratings, who was already thrown off of The View.”
Sheen, who is dad to actors Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez and Ramon Estevez, offered the president some “advice” Monday on how he could do a better job.
“The big guy in the White House, if he would take some personal advice—you got to realize, sir, that you are the biggest nothing in the world,“ he said. ”And sir, you stop there. You stop listening to all these people around you, these sycophants, who are encouraging you to be your nonhuman self.”
“Stop fussing with your hair and don’t worry about your tie and stand up straight and speak clearly, not from your throat. Speak from your heart and start being human.” He concluded, “That’s what you were made for, not golf. So there you are, Mr. President. With all due respect, sir.”
