The Statement
A Facebook post1 claims to be a letter by Hollywood star Clint Eastwood defending US President Donald Trump.
The lengthy post is credited as "from Clint Eastwood" and begins, "I love when people call Trump Stupid." It then lists several of what it claims are Trump's accomplishments before it going on to attack Hillary Clinton, Madonna, Robert DeNiro and Katy Perry by posing the question: "Are you sure you back a party that enables the decimation of every core principal (sic) of Christianity?"
The post goes on to criticise the Democratic Party and their policies before concluding, "See the spirit of Trump supporting and freedom loving Americans and just imagine where we could be as a country if everyone had the same priorities."
The July 24 post has been shared nearly 200 times and generated more than 600 reactions.
The Analysis
Clint Eastwood2 has long been interested in US politics, however the letter in the Facebook post was not written by the veteran actor and director.
In 19863 Eastwood was elected as mayor of Carmel, California for a two-year term and he has often supported the Republican party, including an appearance at the 2012 Republican National Convention endorsing candidate Mitt Romney4.
Eastwood has previously described himself in interviews as a "libertarian"5 and expressed cautious support for the then presidential candidate Donald Trump in a 2016 interview6 with Esquire magazine, saying: "I can understand where he's coming from, but I don't always agree with it."
However by February 20207, Eastwood told the Wall Street Journal he supported then-Democratic candidate Mike Bloomberg8.
Most of the letter attributed to Eastwood in the post first appeared in the Eagle-Tribune newspaper of Massachusetts on September 30, 2019, and was written by Fred Doucette9. Doucette10 is a Republican state representative for New Hampshire and also lists himself in the letter as the New Hampshire chairman of the Trump campaign.
Doucette also shared the letter on Facebook11 where the text is a word-for-word match to the post's letter attributed to Eastwood. Doucette's letter was also shared on the Massachusetts Republican Party Facebook page with a photo of Eastwood12. Accompanying the image is a quote purportedly by the actor saying, "If Congress really gave a rat's ass about the American people they would resign."
AAP FactCheck was unable to find any evidence to link Eastwood to the quote, although he has previously disparaged Congress, calling them "lazy bastards" in 201613 and in a 2013 interview14 he criticised Washington's legislators by saying "it's almost like they don't give a damn".
It's appears Eastwood was linked to the letter after his image was used in Doucette's Facebook post15.
False - The primary claims of the content are factually inaccurate.
* AAP FactCheck is accredited by the Poynter Institute's International Fact-Checking Network, which promotes best practice through a stringent and transparent Code of Principles. https://factcheck.aap.com.au/
