The “show biz” in Donald Trump’s Republican National Convention fell considerably short of A-list on Monday, kicking off the first of four nights with reality TV hunter Willie Robertson of Duck Dynasty, in a flag-motif head scarf, declaring Trump “will have your back.”
He was followed in rapid, prime-time succession by actor Scott Baio of Happy Days and Charles in Charge. Baio, who campaigned for Ronald Reagan in his youth, built on Trump’s “Let’s make America great” rallying cry with this: “Let’s make America America again.”
Robertson, whose family has amassed millions through hunting ventures in Louisiana and on TV, played the regular-folk card on the Cleveland podium, chiding Trump detractors who “don’t hang with regular folks like us.”
Robertson said he and Trump have three things in common: They’re successful businessmen, they have hit TV shows and “we both have intelligent wives who are much better looking than we are.”
Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, was the opening night’s keynote speaker.
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Both Baio and the big-bearded Robertson, who also described how he snuck into the 2008 GOP convention on Twitter, kept their remarks short and on message.
“Donald Trump will always tell you the truth as he sees it,” said Robertson.
Baio, in a bright red tie, addressed first-time voters on what it means to be an American. Or rather, what it doesn’t mean.
“It doesn’t mean getting free stuff,” he said. “It means sacrificing, winning, losing, failing, succeeding, sometimes doing the things you don’t want to do, including the hard work in order to get where you want to be.”
And Baio answered his own question when asking: “Is Donald Trump a messiah? No. He’s just a man, a man who wants to give back to his country, America. A country that has given him everything.”
He whipped up some boos for Hillary Clinton in laying out the two parties’ choices for president, before he called her a “woman who somehow feels she’s entitled to the presidency.”
A third actor came in the form of former Calvin Klein underwear model and General Hospital star Antonio Sabato Jr., who also has appeared on Dancing With the Stars and Melrose Place.
“I know I’m not your typical convention speaker,” he acknowledged. Adding, “The truth is, I’ve never considered myself very political.
“I believe we need Donald Trump,” Sabato continued, “who shares my beliefs and my faith to get our country back on track.”
Watch the speeches from Trump’s fellow TV stars below.
