Award-winning actress Jane Fonda is best known for her stellar work on screen, but she also built a reputation as a political activist. The advocate for left-leaning causes has been a thorn in the side of Republican President Donald Trump since his first term from 2017 to 2021.
The liberal Fonda, 88, and the conservative Trump, 79, have been going back and forth for years. Their public feud over policies has turned personal, with verbal jabs exchanged at campaign rallies, in television interviews, and online.
Actress Jane Fonda Recounts the Moment Her Father’s Slap Taught Her the Impact of Using the N-Word
“They arrested the wrong Don,” Fonda said at a protest following Don Lemon’s arrest just weeks earlier. “When a red line is crossed like this, we cannot be silent.” In an Instagram post, she warned, “Wake up folks and rise up. The orange man in the White House has sold us down the river for a billion dollars.”
Meanwhile, Trump took a rhetorical swing at the actress by making fun of her getting arrested multiple times for taking part in the 2019 “Fire Drill Fridays” climate change protests in Washington, D.C. He slammed the “9 to 5” movie star while addressing his supporters in Louisiana.
“They arrested Jane Fonda, nothing changes. I remember 30, 40 years ago they arrested her,” Trump told the MAGA crowd at a November rally that year, referring to Fonda’s work with the anti-Vietnam War movement in the 1970s.
The former “The Apprentice” reality television show host continued cracking on Fonda by telling his rabid fans, “She’s always got the handcuffs on, oh man. She’s waving to everybody with the handcuffs. I can’t believe it.”
Around two weeks later, Fonda was asked about being on Trump’s radar. She responded by calling the real estate mogul’s actions on climate change “criminal” during a 2019 sitdown with CNN’s Van Jones.
Trump returned to the White House in 2025 for a second, nonconsecutive term. Fonda is now back to addressing the president. This time, she drew a parallel between the billionaire businessman and another billionaire businessman, her spouse from 1991 to 2001.
“I know him. I met him. He used to really like and admire my ex-husband, Ted Turner. And I feel because I spent a decade with Ted Turner, I understand Trump a little bit, because they have certain things in common,” Fonda explained to Vox Media’s Kara Swisher in an interview posted on Feb. 12.
The thrice-married mother of three went on to point out that both Trump and Turner, 87, allegedly had “early trauma” at the hands of their fathers.
Fonda then admitted that sometimes she has “conversations with” Trump in her head.
“I would try to touch his heart,” she added. According to the actress, Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, squelched a possible meeting between the two political adversaries in 2017, after Trump’s first election victory.Â
The two-time Oscar winner provided more armchair psychology about the current commander in chief, saying, “It’s important to understand. What he does, and what he says, the behavior, is the language of the traumatized. And you have to see through it.”
Fonda also advised Trump’s critics not to harbor any hatred toward him, because that negative approach “brings you down.” She concluded her commentary by suggesting Trump and other wealthy powerbrokers, like technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, are “not well” before adding, “I’m so sorry that this happened to them in their lives.”
Fans of the “Georgia Rule” star laughed and applauded her efforts to get change out of a senior citizen known for insulting his own children and wife in front of others. But some feel her work will go unappreciated.
“She’s my hero since the 70’s!” said one person, while another wrote, “You can’t help an 80-year-old malignant narcissist. Bless her heart for trying, though.”
A third warned, “Jane dear … you’re going to make yourself sick …”
In response to Fonda saying she wanted to touch Trump’s heart, one person asked, “What heart?” Responding directly to her statement, “In my mind, sometimes when I lie in bed,” one joked, “I BET SHE DOES! WANTING HIM RIGHT NEXT TO HER…SHE LOOOOOVVEESSSS HIM.”
Yet one critic who couldn’t help himself wrote, “Pretty sure that is never going to happen … why would Trump have any interest in her wrinkly old treasonous a–.”
Despite Fonda offering some caring words for the president, the likelihood of Trump reciprocating that kindhearted sentiment to her is highly unlikely to be his next chapter in this story. Going by his past public disputes, the MAGA leader will probably keep Fonda on his nemesis list.
