On “Fox & Friends” Thursday, actor Jim Caviezel claimed with a straight face that former President Donald Trump is “the new Moses.” (Watch the video below.)
The conservative “Passion of the Christ” star was promoting his new movie, “Sound of Freedom,” which dramatizes the exploits of anti-trafficking activist Tim Ballard. The film has made more than $100 million at the box office on a reported budget of $14.5 million.
As the interview with “F&F” host Brian Kilmeade neared the end, Caviezel said of the child trafficking issue: “We have to do a lot more. And we got to start with Donald Trump.”
Asked to elaborate, Caviezel replied: “Well, he’s got to be in there because he’s going to go after the traffickers.”
Kilmeade then asked the “Person of Interest” alum if he’d called this to Trump’s attention. Cavaziel said that he and producer Eduardo Verástegui screened the film for the twice-indicted Republican challenger in Bedminster, New Jersey, the previous night.
“This is the new Moses,” Caviezel said. “I mean, I’m still Jesus, but he’s the new Moses. Pharaoh, let my children go free.”
Trump has often ranked himself among historical greats like President Abraham Lincoln, but hearing a movie star compare him to a figure of biblical proportions is something else.
In “Sound of Freedom,” which has faith-based elements, Caviezel’s Ballard sets out to rescue children from sex traffickers in Colombia. Mira Sorvino also stars.
The movie has gotten some positive reviews, though Rolling Stone called it a “vigilante fever dream” and a “QAnon-tinged thriller” for the “conspiracy addled boomer.”
CBC Radio’s Radheyan Simonpillai called it a “blandly competent thriller” about “a grave subject matter that has been tragically co-opted as a rallying cry for xenophobic, pro-Trump types.”
Here’s the “Fox & Friends” interview clip, which was shared by Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington: