page_title: Jon Voight
section_title: Political views
hierarchical_section_title: Jon Voight / Political views
caption_attribution_description: President Donald J. Trump participates in the National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal presentations in the East Room of the White House on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019. (Official White House photo by Tia Dufour)
context_page_description: Jon Voight is an American actor. He is the winner of one Academy Award, having been nominated for four. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards and has so far been nominated for eleven. He is the father of actress Angelina Jolie and actor James Haven.
  Voight came to prominence in the late 1960s with his Oscar-nominated performance as Joe Buck, a would-be gigolo in Midnight Cowboy. During the 1970s, he became a Hollywood star with his portrayals of a businessman mixed up with murder in Deliverance; a paraplegic Vietnam veteran in Coming Home, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor; and a penniless ex-boxing champion in the remake of The Champ.
  His output became sparse during the 1980s and early 1990s, although he won the Golden Globe and was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance as the ruthless bank robber Oscar "Manny" Manheim in Runaway Train. Voight made a comeback in Hollywood during the mid-1990s, starring in Michael Mann's crime epic Heat opposite Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. He portrayed Jim Phelps in Mission: Impossible, a corrupt NSA agent in Enemy of the State, and the unscrupulous attorney Leo F.
context_section_description: In his early life, his political views aligned with American liberal views and he supported President John F. Kennedy, describing his assassination as traumatizing to people at that time. He also worked for George McGovern's voter registrations efforts in the inner cities of Los Angeles. Voight actively protested against the Vietnam War. In the 1970s, he made public appearances alongside Jane Fonda and Leonard Bernstein in support of the leftist Unidad Popular group in Chile.
  In a July 28, 2008 op-ed in The Washington Times, he wrote that he regretted his youthful anti-war activism, and claimed that the peace movement of that time was driven by "Marxist propaganda".  He also claimed that the radicals in the peace movement were responsible for the communists coming to power in Vietnam and Cambodia and for failing to stop the subsequent slaughter of 2.5 million people in the Killing Fields.
  In the same op-ed he also criticised the Democratic Party and Barack Obama's bid to become president claiming that the Democrats had created "a propaganda campaign with subliminal messages, creating a God-like figure (Obama)" who would "demoralize this country and help create a socialist America". He claimed Obama had grown up with the teachings of very angry, militant white and black people around him.
  In May 2008, Voight paid a solidarity visit to Israel in honor of its 60th birthday. "I'm coming to salute, encourage and strengthen the people of Israel on this joyous 60th birthday", said Voight. "This week is about highlighting Israel as a moral beacon. At a time when its enemies threaten nuclear destruction, Israel heals."
  Voight endorsed Republican presidential nominees Mitt Romney and Donald Trump in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections respectively. Speaking at an inauguration rally for Donald Trump in January 2017 Voight said, "God answered all our prayers" by granting Trump the White House. In May 2019, Voight released a short two-part video on Twitter supporting President Trump's policies, and calling him "the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln".
caption: Voight alongside Donald Trump in 2019 after receiving the National Medal of Arts
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