Arnold Schwarzenegger Backtracks On Wanting To ‘Smash’ Trump’s Face Into A Table By Referencing ‘Fake News’

Much was made about Donald Trump’s comments about The Celebrity Apprentice ratings and Arnold Schwarzenegger at the National Prayer Breakfast. Not only is it an odd place to bring up television ratings, tying it into prayer before it was all said and done, but then Arnold responded to the comments. The initial response posted online was pretty sharp and kept things clean, but it was soon followed by the former governor’s comments in Men’s Journal. That’s where Schwarzenegger said the following:

“I said, ‘Let’s sit on it for an hour. I called my assistant and said, ‘I think what we really should do is request a meeting and go back to New York.’ ” He pauses for maximum impact. “And then we just smash his face into the table.”

I don’t know if many folks took him seriously, but the news did spread. When you’re talking about smacking the president’s head into a table, folks will pay attention. So now Schwarzenegger is backtracking, speaking to Variety about the comments and making sure we all know that it was just a big laugh:

Schwarzenegger told Variety that he was joking but, like a game of telephone, that point got lost as the story got picked up and traveled across digital and social media on Tuesday, with headlines on the order of, “Schwarzenegger says of Trump that he wanted to ‘smash his face into a table.’”

“Writers want to create sensationalistic things and blow things up,” said Schwarzenegger, who was California’s governor from 2003 to 2011. He even called it “fake news” to report the story without noting that he was explaining his thought process “in a joking way.”

It was all fine until he had to drop “fake news” in there. He did say the words “smash his face into the table” after all, so Men’s Journal didn’t just pull it out of a fantasy world thanks to a magical ticket left by Harry Houdini. I can see the need to clear it up, but it is far from the “fake news” that spread about Hillary Clinton’s anti-coughing machine at the debates or Trump’s desire to eat a baby. That’s “fake news.”

Arnold continued on with his explanation to Variety, pointing out that it all boils down to his respect for the office:

“One has to be very careful because I always try to say things in a classy way, and not to give the impression that I want to be physical and do this to the president. I have too much respect for the presidency,”

There’s no way this puts an end to Donald Trump bringing up Apprentice ratings at political events. But it might be the end of Schwarzenegger giving it his attention.