Donald Trump may have won the presidency, while Arnold Schwarzenegger was a mere governor of California.
And Trump may be able to boast that his version of the reality show “The Apprentice” trounced Schwarzenegger’s in terms of ratings for NBC.
But Schwarzenegger has won the battle for the moral high ground. In the wake of white supremacist-feuled violence at rallies in Charlottesville, Va., the “Terminator” star has donated $100,000 to the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. The center combats anti-Semitism and bigotry, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.
Actually, Schwarzenegger announced his donation on Sunday, as Trump was being blasted by members of both political parties for his weak response to the neo-Nazi and white supremacists who stoked violence that left a 32-year-old counter-protester dead.
In a statement Saturday, Trump avoiding naming any of the groups or ideologies involved. Instead Trump referred in general terms to “hatred and bigotry” and said “many sides” were responsible.
Trump wouldn’t name names — “KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists” — until a brief and visibly grudging White House statement Monday.
But Schwarzenegger had already beaten him to naming names on Sunday, saying in his Facebook post that he was “horrified” by the previous day’s rallies, where neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other far-right activists chanted racist and anti-Semitic slogans and a car plowed into a crowd, killing the woman and injuring 19 other people. Two police officers monitoring the rally also died when their helicopter crashed.
“I have been horrified by the images of Nazis and white supremacists marching in Charlottesville and I was heartbroken that a domestic terrorist took an innocent life,” Schwarzenegger wrote. “My message to them is simple: you will not win. Our voices are louder and stronger. There is no white America — there is only the United States of America.”
The former bodybuilder said he hoped his contribution would advance the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s mission of “expanding tolerance through education and fighting hate all over America.” He also urged his 16 million followers to contribute to a favorite anti-hate organization “in any way you can.”
The Austrian-born Schwarzenegger has his own difficult with Nazis. His father, back in Austria, had been a police official who belonged to the Nazi party, Slate reported. The politically ambitious Schwarzenegger also faced criticism in the 1980s for staying friends with Kurt Waldheim, the former Secretary General of the United Nations and president of Austria, who was discovered to have participated in Nazi atrocities during World War II.
While Schwarzenegger never spoke out directly against Waldheim, he proclaimed his disgust for Nazism, raised money for education about the Holocaust, traveled to Israel, and became a generous donor to the Wiesenthal center, which in 1997 bestowed on him its National Leadership Award.
Back in 2003, the Wiesenthal Center’s Rabbi Marvin Hier told the Jerusalem Post that Schwarzenegger “had done more to further the cause of Holocaust awareness than almost any other Hollywood star.”
Trump, meanwhile, faced criticism throughout his campaign and as president for his friendliness to white nationalist groups and ideas, even employing three senior advisors in his White House, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Sebastian Gorka, who have been associated with white nationalist, anti-Semitic or alt-right viewpoints.
Former KKK leader David Duke said in interviews over the weekend that Trump was the “inspiration” for the neo-Nazi rallies, and white supremacists were delighted that Trump didn’t initially denounce them over the two days of racial violence.
Martha Ross is a Bay Area News Group columnist
