“I know a different guy,” said the actor, who was pals with the politician before he became president.

Josh Brolin reflects on former friendship with Donald Trump: ‘There is no greater genius than him in marketing’

"I know a different guy," said the actor, who was pals with the politician before he became president.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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November 29, 2025 5:42 p.m. ET

Josh Brolin on Nov. 17, 2025; Donald Trump in 2023. Credit:

Maya Dehlin Spach/WireImage;James Devaney/GC

- Josh Brolin says he once considered Donald Trump a pal and that he was "a different guy" before he became president.

- The *Dune* actor befriended Trump around the time they shot *Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps*, from which the *Apprentice* star was cut.

- "There is no greater genius than him in marketing," Brolin said.

Josh Brolin is reflecting on his relationship with Donald Trump before the business mogul moved to the White House.

The *No Country for Old Men* star befriended the U.S. president around the time they filmed Oliver Stone's 2010 *Wall Street* sequel, *Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, *from which Trump was ultimately cut.

"I'm not scared of Trump, because even though he says he's staying forever, it's just not going to happen," Brolin said of the president alluding to a third term in his new interview with *The Independent*. "And if it does, then I'll deal with that moment. But having been a friend of Trump before he was president, I know a different guy."

Josh Brolin in 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps'.

Century Fox Film Corp

The *Hail, Caesar* star added that he was fascinated by Trump's development of a luxury hotel "in the middle of a cesspool city" in the late '70s.

"That's interesting to me," he said. "Now it's power unmitigated — it's unregulated."

Brolin also thinks he understands why the former *Apprentice* star has appealed to voters across the country. "There is no greater genius than him in marketing," he said. "He takes the weakness of the general population and fills it."

He continued, "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."

Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to **'s request for comment.

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Though he once considered Trump a pal, Brolin rejected his 2020 presidential bid in October 2020 in an impassioned Instagram post.

"I refuse to believe that Donald Trump is our core version of American masculinity," the *Dune* star wrote at the time. "The America that was great was never based on creating hate and conspiracy in order to win. There have been a few, but none has lasted. Donald Trump has lied over 50,000 documented times, but we still are willing to let it go because he speaks to an American demographic that no longer felt masculine."

Josh Brolin at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 6, 2025.

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

Last year, Brolin shared a bizarre memory of an interaction he had with the future president at his New York apartment. "I said, 'What's upstairs?' He said, 'Our bedroom,'" he remembered on *In Depth With Graham Bensinger. *"And I said, 'Can I see upstairs?' He said, 'Yeah.' And then nobody moved. And I said, 'Cool. So should we go up?' And he said, 'Yeah.' And then he still didn't move. And I'm thinking, 'What the f--- is happening?'"

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Brolin is in the midst of a particularly busy chapter of his career. He can be seen in Edgar Wright's *The Running Man* and Rian Johnson's *Wake Up Dead Man*, both of which are playing now in theaters. He also appeared in Zach Cregger's *Weapons*, which is streaming on HBO Max, this year, and lent his voice to Ken Burns' *The American Revolution* docuseries on PBS.

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