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Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday, November 11, to promote his new Christmas film, The Man With the Bag, and used the appearance to declare that he remains a Republican, despite his disagreements with the direction of the modern party.
Asked by host Jimmy Kimmel whether he still considers himself a Republican, the 79-year-old former California governor did not hesitate. "Yeah, I'm a Republican, absolutely," he said.
Schwarzenegger defined a traditional Republican as someone who admires the party for having freed the slaves. Kimmel interjected that the party does not get credit for that anymore, but Schwarzenegger continued, saying that was the history he stood by. "This is what I'm about. Someone that has given those slaves American citizenship and given them the rights to vote," he said.
Kimmel pressed him on whether those values still describe the Republican Party today. "This sounds like all the opposite things that the Republican Party stands for now though, doesn't it?" he asked. Schwarzenegger replied that a changing party does not mean he has to change his philosophy. "It doesn't mean I have to change my philosophy," he said.
He pointed to Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon as examples of the party he identifies with. He credited Reagan with creating the California Air Resources Board, which regulates greenhouse gases and pollution in the state, and Nixon with creating the Environmental Protection Agency to protect the environment, water and air. Those, he said, were Republicans who worked together with Democrats and got things done.
Schwarzenegger also spoke about his refusal to endorse Donald Trump in 2016. He said Trump asked him to endorse him and campaign for him, and he declined because there were things Trump stood for that he did not believe in, including on climate change and pollution. He went on to endorse former Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz in the 2024 campaign, saying at the time: "I will always be an American before I am a Republican."
The conversation also turned to health care. Pressed by Kimmel on the Affordable Care Act, Schwarzenegger pointed to rising health care costs and called the law "a failed kind of... It was a good attempt." He said neither party has delivered lasting answers on immigration, the national debt or health care, and argued that Democrats and Republicans have to work together. "You have to get together and accomplish and be a public servant, rather than a party servant," he said.
When Kimmel suggested that Republicans like him were becoming rare, Schwarzenegger pushed back. "I don't think I'm the only one left," he said. "This doesn't mean that we should give up."
Critics of Schwarzenegger's argument say the parties have changed significantly since the Civil War, and that the parties' present-day positions cannot be judged solely by their history. The exchange has reignited debate over party identity and political history in America.
Schwarzenegger served as governor of California from 2003 to 2011, the state's last Republican governor. His appearance on Kimmel's show came a week after Democrats swept the November 3 midterm elections. The Man With the Bag, in which he plays Santa Claus alongside Alan Ritchson, premieres globally on Prime Video on December 2.