Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing is about to debut on its new network, Fox, for it’s 7th season, after being dumped by ABC.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly to promote the show, Tim Allen was asked how he feels about Trump, as there have been a lot of assumptions made about him being a Trump supporter.
Here’s what he had to say:
Despite a lot of assumptions about you online, you haven’t, from what I’ve read, actually ever endorsed Trump. You actually endorsed Kasich right?
Yeah, I endorsed Kasich. Politically I’m kind of an anarchist if you see my stand-up. I’m for responsible government that actually does what we pay them to do. I’ve worked different jobs and I’ve had a colorful past and I pay a lot in taxes. I wish we got more for our money. Whatever political party is for more responsible use of our money — that’s all I meant. In Los Angeles, I’m concerned about the 26,000 homeless people and I do the best I can. I’m concerned about keeping my roads and stuff clean in North Hollywood. Generally, the government is no help and people have to do that themselves. Kasich said that in a speech — that the government can’t do stuff that you won’t do yourself. Jump in! Do whatever it takes to get people engaged — not putting on a hoodie and screaming in the streets — but actually figure out how to help North Hollywood or Encino or wherever you live to get better. My political party is that I’ve never liked taxes, period, so whatever that means … I don’t like paying people who never seem to do what I would do with my money. I always thought it would be funny if I had a little menu on my tax returns where I could tell them where my money would go
Responsible government…yeah that’d be thing. But the problem is the word ‘responsible’ means different things to different people. To Democrats it means big spending on things like Obamacare. To Republicans it means…well sorta the same thing as we’ve found out since Trump got elected. But to true conservatives it means a lot less spending and more liberty to the individual, so they can take care of themselves.
Allen continues…
If that menu was there, I imagine education would do a lot better and the defense industry would do a lot worse.
That’s what I mean. I’d like to pay teachers more! Fix that school up, and get a trade school near that school. I love the military. I don’t think we need two more attack submarines — for instance, I’m not saying that, but if you look at the [hypothetical tax return menu], I love our soldiers, they need a raise. “Walk softly with a big stick,” I like that. But some of that other stuff? I dunno…
I do think we need more military infrastructure because that’s part of the big stick. And if that means two more attack subs in order to maintain dominance on the high seas, then I’m all for it. Not in excess, of course. But we need what we need.
Here’s where Allen really gets specific about Trump:
But you’re assumed to be a Trump supporter, and you did attend his inauguration. So I guess what I’m wondering is … it’s been a year and a half, after all we’ve seen, as a self-described “fiscal conservative’ in Hollywood whose TV show dabbles in political humor: Are you a Trump fan, at this point, or not?
You know … it’s a very loaded question. I’ve met [Trump] at the charity event years ago, and that certainly doesn’t fit with the man who tweets. I’ve met a lot of people in private whose public persona is a bit off. My perception is “let’s see what he gets done.” Let’s stop banging on the pilot’s door and trying to pull the guy out of his seat while he’s still flying. You might not like how he’s flying the plane but let’s let him land it. Do I like him or agree with him? … I don’t know. Somebody got this NAFTA thing done. How did that happen? It’s like a slight of hand with this dude. There’s this smoke and smelly food but over here he just fixed a pothole. The theater of this is fascinating. He doesn’t do it very attractively but you don’t even realize the economy is doing better. Is it? There’s so much drama. Maybe it took this type of guy to get stuff done because it was so stuck in the mud. I’m just watching the theater of it and trying to keep my personal opinions out of it. What difference does it make whether I like him?
I like how he describes it. There is a lot of drama that Trump creates, but he is getting stuff done. I wouldn’t say NAFTA is a done deal yet, as negotiations with Canada are still in the works. But I take his point.
Overall Allen sounds fairly reasonable about Trump. Just let Trump fly the plane. That doesn’t mean we can’t disagree with Trump or try and influence his decisions – I don’t think he’s saying that at all. But we elected him to fly the plane and so far he’s doing fairly well.
If we want another pilot we can always push him out of the plane in 2020 – with a parachute of course.