By Site Editor
Michigan Chronicle
https://michiganchronicle.com/
Morgan Freeman is speaking plainly about where he believes the country stands.
The Academy Award-winning actor appeared on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell this week and sharply criticized President Donald Trump, questioning how a sitting president with a criminal conviction returned to office.
“I can’t personally understand how a convicted felon — convicted — 34 felon… felonious, is that the word? — counts of wrongdoing gets to be president,” Freeman said. “How do you do that? … That ruling went down before he stepped into the Oval Office. So it just doesn’t make sense to me.”
In May 2024, a New York jury found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records tied to hush money payments made before the 2016 election. The conviction was handed down months before he re-entered the Oval Office. Trump has denied wrongdoing and has called the case politically motivated.
Freeman went further, drawing a historical comparison that he said has stayed with him. “I’m constantly reminded of Germany in 1935,” he said, referencing the rise of authoritarian power and the targeting of vulnerable groups. “The brownshirts… rounding up people, putting them in boxcars and sending them off.”
He added, “Now this administration wants to build large detention centers.”
The Trump administration has expanded immigration enforcement and detention capacity during his current term, a move the White House says is focused on border security. Civil rights advocates, meanwhile, have raised concerns about the scale and conditions of detention operations.
Freeman’s appearance was intended to promote The Gray House, a Prime Video series he executive-produced about women who operated as Union spies during the Civil War. But the conversation shifted to the present — and what he believes is at stake.
When asked what he would tell young Americans who feel discouraged about the country’s direction, Freeman’s answer was direct:
“If you don’t agree with it… there is one sure way to change the direction of our country: Vote.”
