“For every Cruz or Rubio supporter I talk to, there are 10 Trump supporters,” says one conservative wealth manager who has a deep bench of entertainment industry clients. He didn’t want to speak publicly, though he admitted most of his firm’s left-leaning clientele support Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. “I tell them, ‘if you don’t want to feel the Bern, convert your IRAs now rather than pay his 92 percent tax rate.’ I know they like their Teslas, private schools and million-dollar-mansions, but they won’t afford all that if they’re allowed to keep only 8 percent of their income.”
Could this be a turning point among Hollywood’s conservative branch?
There’s the conservative stars that are openly Republican. Actor John Voight, whose daughter Angelina Jolie is famously Liberal-leaning, threw his support to Trump on March 8. “I pray all Americans who have seen and felt the meltdown of America with the Obama years, to please fight for Donald Trump,” Voight said in his endorsement. THR asked rocker Ted Nugent, a Trump supporter, if there are others in entertainment who back Trump but are too timid to say so out loud, and he said: “I know it for a fact, but vowed not to out them.” Beyond Voight and Nugent, celebrities outwardly supporting The Donald include Kid Rock, Stephen Baldwin and Duck Dynasty’s Willie Robertson.
And it’s those so-called closeted entertainment industry stalwarts Nugent and others refer to that remain a mystery.
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