Matt Damon: Trump has 'a lot of work cut out for him' but we have to root for him
President-elect Donald Trump has "a lot of work cut out for him" but Americans need to be "rooting for him", Oscar-winning actor Matt Damon said on Wednesday, even though he supported Democrat rival Hillary Clinton during the election.
Speaking at a CNBC-hosted panel during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Damon spoke about his charity Water.org and also what he hopes to see from the Trump administration.
"First of all, I wish him well and we all must. A successful American president is good for all of us and we really have to be rooting for him right now," Damon said.
"Obviously, it's no secret that I didn't vote for him. And yeah, I think there is a sense of we are heading into new territory here. He is obviously not a career politician, he has been very occupied with his own business interest, which are relatively narrow given the scope of what a president actually has to deal with, so I imagine he is really working hard right now to master so many sectors. He's just got a lot of work cut out for him."
Damon said that he doesn't know what Trump's policy will be on foreign aid but "we can just hope for the best."
"The Bourne Identity" star was a vocal supporter of Clinton during the U.S. presidential election and remarked last year that a potential Trump presidency made him "nervous". Damon was critical of Trump's stance on several issues including immigration but said he believes the President-elect will tone down his rhetoric.
"He's about to become the most consequential person on the planet … it's a massive burden … it's such an enormous amount of responsibility, so I suspect he will change," Damon said.
"A sentence from a president can move a market on the other side of the world and I think these guys become aware of that very quickly and you see them become very circumspect with how they speak and very measured, and I think we have to assume that will happen with him as well."
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