Jane Fonda: I Don’t Hate Trump Because He Was ‘Traumatized As A Child’

Jane Fonda doesn’t hate President Donald Trump, according to a new interview with POLITICO. The veteran actress and campaigner told the Women Rule podcast that she feels empathy for Trump and encouraged others to understand why he behaves they way he does.

Fonda explained that she hates what Trump does and what he stands for, but doesn’t hate the man himself. Fonda has come under fire recently for what appeared to be lukewarm opposition to Trump and her suggestion that he had encouraged more women to become politically active.

“I feel that I understand a little bit — this is a man who was traumatized as a child by his father, who had a mother that didn’t protect,” Fonda told POLITICO. “And the behavior is the language of the wounded.”

Trump’s father, Fred Trump, is widely regarded as having been distant from his son. Trump has been mocked for his potential ‘daddy issues’. Trump’s mother was a Scottish immigrant but not much is known about her relationship with her son.

“You never want to criticize Trump, and you don’t want to criticize Fox. You want to tell people things they don’t know,” Fonda said. “Just like what changed and saved my life was being told things I didn’t know by American soldiers. We have to reach out and listen and then respond in a way that’s meaningful.”

“You have to have empathy for him,” Fonda said. “And I think that that has to also transfer to the people who voted for him. Some of them, you can’t possibly persuade otherwise because they’re white supremacists. You know, or they’re so far off the spectrum, for their own traumatic reasons, probably. But there’s a whole bunch of Trump voters who we have to open our hearts to and understand why they voted the way they did.”