Mick Foley Talks His Criticism Of Donald Trump, If It's Affected Vince McMahon Relationship

By Jason Ounpraseuth

On today's episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast, Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman sat down with WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley. During the interview they discussed Foley's outspoken criticisms of President Donald Trump as of late. Foley noted that he did not intend to get more political, but he said he felt that he had to due to the behavior and actions of President Donald Trump.

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"I did not intend to get political," Foley admitted. "I was political in 2003-2004. I debated JBL on World News Tonight on ABC Live, and I thought we both accounted for ourselves pretty well. As soon as the major issue became the economy when it fell apart in 2008–I could not tell you to this day what a credit default swap is, which was the major reason the economy fell apart. No matter how many times I read it, I don't understand it. I'm not, [in] the end, passionate about it, but in this case, I just see so many things going wrong.

"I know that obviously, the president has his fans out there. Overnight, I lost 50,000 followers at one point just because I suggested that maybe there should be witnesses at a trial. So I understand, especially when I'm in some rural areas and signing autographs, they're good people, hard-working people who probably don't feel the same way about the president that I do, and I understand that. And I would hate to lose some of them, let alone 50,000 overnight, but the two dirtiest words in the English language are 'what if'. I always felt that way.

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"I don't want to be that guy saying 'what if' 10 years from now laying on my couch saying, 'I could have gone out there on stage. I could have worked on it. I could have brought a show alive,' so I did my best to do that, and I swear, I don't want a moment where 'what if I had done something different. What if this president wins by 200 votes in one state and pushes the electoral college over the line?' And I just thought, if you got the power to do something and you don't do it because you're worried about losing some Twitter followers, maybe you don't have your priorities in order."

Foley continued talking about President Trump's behavior and actions, calling Trump "a person of indescribable cruelty."

"I just thought this is an extreme time," Foley said. "Everything from a President of the United States with 80 million followers openly mocking someone like Elijah Wood after his house was broken into. To mocking Debbie Dingell about her husband who had just passed away. Just a mean guy and I just see so many issues with it. I literally bought a scroll so that if I was asked, "what's your issue?" Because if it's one issue, then it's easy to bring up.

"If it's 200 issues and literally you come up with 200 things without having to work too hard, things that weren't right with this administration. I want to just roll it out and go, 'do you want me to start alphabetically, chronologically? You name it,' but just in the past few days, threatening to fire your FBI guy if he doesn't give you the information you want. I don't think he understands that they don't work for him. He works for us. The FBI works for us. The [James] Comey thing made that clear. You're not supposed to be close with your FBI guy. He's supposed to give you independent information.

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"So every step of the way from naming the lead juror in a case, outwardly shaming the guy on his Twitter. If you were to see a guy, just a guy mocking somebody for having their house broken into, what would be a word you would use to describe that guy? Heartless, jerk [or] DB. You name it. Now if that same guy has 80 million followers who are going to change the life of that person you're mocking, who are going to make their life a living hell, then that's just a person of indescribable cruelty."

It is known by many fans that the McMahon family is closely aligned with the Trump family. Hausman asked Foley if Vince McMahon has taken issue with his criticisms of President Trump. Foley said he has not, and he talked about how President Trump has divided the country with his rhetoric of mask skepticism during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Well, I think Vince has respected my viewpoint for a couple decades now. I don't think, deep down, he wants everybody to agree with him just because he's Mr. McMahon," Foley stated. "I can honestly say I haven't lost a single single friend in wrestling. I went and campaigned for Glenn Jacobs because I think Glenn is a really good man, and that's what we should be. I tweeted out something yesterday showing a state. It was a state race not a national race, may have even been a local race, but it was two competitors, Republican and a Democrat who had very different views for their area of Vermont. And after their debate, the one guy broke out a guitar and the Democrat broke out a cello, and they did a duet.

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"I tweeted, 'that's the America I want to live in.' We shouldn't be at each other's throats because we think differently. I just put in my opinion. This guy, the President of the United States, having unfettered access to the public for the past five years, to me, it's a not so subtle form of brainwashing. Just coming out and repeating the same mantra over and over, whether it's the perfect letter rounding the corner, a hoax. And I think what he has done to this country in terms of just dividing us over a mask, it's really sad. I think people are going to look back on history and say, 'wait a second, you could have saved 100,000 lives and didn't because people didn't want to wear a mask?' and that's why I put out a video that really resonated.

"It went over a million views. The only time I've had anything remotely close to a million views about wearing a mask despite the fact that it's not comfortable, and the key line there was I wear it because I care more about your safety than I do about my comfort. And I wish that more people felt the same way about me. I think there's a lot riding on this election, and I don't want to be the guy saying, 'I could have. I should have. I would have.' I want to be the guy who does."

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Hausman also brought up Foley's son Dewey who is now one of the lead writers of 205 Live. Foley revealed that WWE higher-ups really like his son's work.

Foley replied, "yeah, Dewey, I've heard from some people high up in the food chain there in WWE that they really like his work."

You can follow Mick on Twitter @RealMickFoley or get a personalized video from him on Cameo via Cameo.com/MickFoley.

Mick's full interview aired as part of today's episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.

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