John Wayne’s son endorses Donald Trump and unveils what Duke would make of him (Image: GETTY)
John Wayne is remembered as one of Tinseltown’s most famous Republicans, a conservative who was in favour of the Hollywood Blacklist.
Yet his youngest son, Ethan Wayne, has exclusively revealed to Express.co.uk in a new interview that Duke’s politics are really misunderstood.
He also unveiled how he believes his father would have responded to President Donald Trump. The 62-year-old manager of John Wayne Enterprises told us: “People remember John Wayne as a very staunch conservative.
In fact, he was on some issues, but he was also socially liberal, and he voted both Democrat and Republican over the years. He would say, ‘I vote for the man, not the party’.”
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John Wayne and his youngest son Ethan Wayne (Image: GETTY)
Ethan, named after Duke’s The Searchers character, continued: “He was a kind of person who came from very humble means. He was a realist and believed in marriage and that everyone should have opportunity. So when he was in high school, he was captain of the football team, he was on the debate team he helped put on the school dance, he worked at the school newspaper, he was in the drama club. He was very involved, and so he was prepared. He was used to debating, having civil discourse, learning how to articulate his thoughts and his feelings, in a way that may share the value of those thoughts and feelings with others who maybe have other thoughts and feelings on subjects.
“So it’s hard to say, I couldn’t say whether he was aligned or opposed to certain people politically because, like let’s say Biden’s our worst president in history… Jimmy Carter wasn’t the greatest president, and certainly to somebody like my father, who was into farming and ranching and agriculture, that was difficult. But my father was still always there to support him on issues that he believed in. And he wrote him prolifically when he felt like Jimmy Carter was making a decision that my father didn’t think was right. He would articulate his point and his position to the president in hopes of bringing him around to his way of thinking; in hopes of educating him to a point where they would be on the same page. But ultimately, it wasn’t his job, you know, it’s the president’s decision. And so the president gets to make those decisions, and we have to sort of abide by them.
“But I think my father was much more socially liberal than people may realise.”
Ethan Wayne at John Wayne: An American Experience in Fort Worth, Texas (Image: ETHAN WAYNE)
Ethan said: “He cared about people and he wanted people to not only have the opportunity to be successful, but to have the opportunity to embrace the responsibility and the work that it takes to become qualified at something, so that you can then prosper doing that, as opposed to someone who just wants an opportunity to be something without the work that it takes to get there. He wanted everybody to have the happiness that comes with completing hard work and truly being accomplished at something.”
John Wayne’s son then shared why he was endorsing Trump before revealing how his father Duke would have reacted to the 45th president. He said: “Donald Trump… it’s unfortunate that his personality can really rub people the wrong way. It’s hard to look past that to the message or the policies that that man might bring to the country. I’m really excited that he’s got Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F Kennedy and JD Vance in his court.
“That gives me hope that more people will look at those people who are better at articulating what they’re going to do, as opposed to getting into a verbal sparring match about personal things. We don’t care about the personal things. Who do you want to run the country? I’d rather have Donald Trump as the CEO, than anybody else that’s on the ticket. But I like Donald Trump with the backing of Tulsi, Robert, Elon, JD. I think that’s a good combination for the country. I would say that’s the best choice.
“You know, I think that my father would agree, but I can’t say that. But I can tell you what my father would do and this may surprise you.”
John Wayne and Ethan Wayne on set of Rio Lobo (Image: GETTY)
Ethan revealed: “If Biden or Kamala did need something for the country, he would go help them for the country, because he loved the country. Because this is a place where, if you’re prepared and you do the work and you are ready for an opportunity, this is a country where you can still get the opportunity.
“People who came here, forged this land, did not have opportunity where they came from, so they left. There was no Instagram, there was no brochure, there was no anything. They just got on that frickin’ boat and they sailed across the sea, and they got to a wild country. They had to deal with a bunch of charlatans on the way and navigate their way through people trying to rip them off, selling them bad equipment, setting them up, ambushing them. And then you’ve got, whoever you’re going to meet on the prairie, whether that’s Native Americans, Mexicans, French, whoever’s out there; kind of a free for all. And I think the values set in character that came out of that group of people, like, the best of what came out of those strong people, is what John Wayne tried to represent in this films.”
“And yes, his weakness, as time goes on, you become a caricature of what you actually were. John Wayne was a man who loved the ocean, he loved being on his boat, he loved being near the sand. He played a cowboy, right? He was grateful to this country for the opportunity they gave him. He wanted to go to the Naval Academy. He couldn’t do it. He wanted to become a lawyer. He couldn’t afford to stay in school. He got a job on the back lot of Fox Studios as the prop man’s assistant, sweeping the floors and was able to take all his knowledge and his social skills and parlay that into something that was valuable to people, to a director, to a producer, to become something, a tool that they could use to tell their stories. And he embraced that and worked hard at it.”
Ethan added: “And you see him, once he had done Stagecoach, there’s a major transformation in who he is on screen. And then a couple decades later, it continues, and then he finally really becomes the John Wayne that we all know. And trust me, he died when I was 17, I would love to know, especially since I run our family business, [if he’d endorse Trump] it’s very interesting to me.
“But he was a hard worker. So before he ever had the opportunity he could speak. He was educated, he was knowledgeable, he was bright, he was attentive, he was hard-working, like he had all those things going for him, so that when opportunity did show itself, he was prepared to embrace that opportunity and be valuable to that opportunity, as opposed to someone who hadn’t done all that work, may receive that opportunity, but they’re not as valuable to the opportunity because they haven’t prepared themselves. And I think that’s why meritocracy is better.”
John Wayne: An American Experience is open now in Fort Worth, Texas and tickets can be purchased here.
