Times Angelina Jolie's Father Jon Voight Publicly Supported Donald Trump

Jon Voight has never shied away from challenging roles. He's famed for playing a gigolo in "Midnight Cowboy," a paraplegic Vietnam vet in "Coming Home," the titular role in "Pope John Paul II," and the legendary sportscaster Howard Cosell in "Ali." While Voight is still actively working at age 85, he has become better known in recent years for being the father of actors Angelina Jolie and James Haven. He's also gaining buzz — and not always the good kind — for his political stance. Like fellow performers Scott Baio, Kevin Sorbo, Roseanne Barr, and Kid Rock, Voight is a hard-line conservative who fully supports the re-election campaign of Donald Trump, the businessman who transformed himself into one of the most unexpected presidents ever to hold office.

Calling the Biden administration "false security" and "a joke," Voight asserts America's safety and freedom are in jeopardy as a result. The only hope for the country, he declares, is to put Trump back in the Oval Office. It's a message he has been repeating often, particularly since the 2020 elections. Voight's feed on X (formerly known as Twitter) devotes a bit of space to his acting projects, such as the movie version of his TV series "Ray Donovan." But the bulk of his posts are short political videos that include plenty of patriotic buzzwords and biblical references intended to support fellow Trump voters and sway the undecided. We offer a short sampling here.

Millions of Americans were unhappy to learn Donald Trump had lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, but none more so than the incumbent POTUS himself. He tried to prove the election had been stolen — a claim he makes to this day, despite numerous court rulings to the contrary. The following January 6, when Congress was poised to certify the results and declare Biden the winner, Trump held a protest rally in Washington that quickly turned into something more than mere flag-waving and slogan-chanting. Yet despite the chaos that resulted on January 6, Trump still refused to say he had lost the election. 

Jon Voight had been urging his fans to vote for Trump's second term. A month before the election, he posted a video that began bluntly, "Biden is evil. Trump must win." Asserting that God wanted Americans to "vote for truths" rather than the "deceitful" Democrats, Voight called Trump "a man of integrity who is fighting for you." After the results were in, Voight released another video expressing his "disgust" at the results and declaring the country had entered "the greatest fight since the Civil War: the battle of righteousness versus Satan."

Three days after the insurrection, Voight declared that while the violence at the Capitol was wrong, the protesters' grievances were legitimate: "The ones who destroyed will be accountable, but the ones who truly wanted to share love and respect will be heard."

Is it his refusal to name a favorite verse from the Bible (as seen here on YouTube)? Is it his decision to change his official religious affiliation from Presbyterian to nondenominational while in office — the first president in nearly 60 years to do so? Whatever the reason, many Christian Americans believe Donald Trump's 2016 presidential victory was part of God's greater plan. Jon Voight seems to be among them. 

In a June 2023 video titled "Believe,"  Voight invoked the story of Joshua's victory in Jericho, comparing it to Trump's legal tribulations. Not content to stop at an Old Testament reference, the actor went on to suggest Trump is a Christ-like figure, wrongly persecuted but poised to return and redeem. "Believe that the man that can help this nation, the one man that was ridiculed, destroyed as Jesus — Trump — can come back and save the American dream for all," he declared. 

Some commenters thanked Voight for his message of hope, but others thought he went too far. One wrote, "I am a Trump supporter all day. I don't think I would go as far as to compare him to Jesus, though."

In 2023, Donald Trump made appearances in courtrooms almost as often as he did at campaign rallies. By the end of the year, he had a total of four open cases against him. Among them were charges of fraud related to business documents, and felony charges concerning classified documents Trump allegedly withheld from the government despite being ordered to return them. In August, Trump and 18 co-defendants were indicted on charges they conspired to change the presidential election results in Georgia. This particular case spurred Jon Voight to speak out once again on his favored candidate's behalf. 

In a video titled "Stand," the Oscar-winning actor called the indictment "the most disgusting scheme to try to keep [Trump] down." Voight felt it was unjust to try pinning crimes on the former president while common criminals are allowed to loot stores without punishment. "My only wish is that all can find the truth that President Trump is a man who wants to save America," he said. America's freedoms, Voight added, are being stripped from us by the "lies and greed" of the Biden administration. He closed ominously by reminding his followers of "Lincoln's sacrifice." Was he suggesting Trump might become a martyr for the cause of his country?

Angelina Jolie has had a strained relationship with her father, Jon Voight, for years. The rift stems from the bitter divorce between Voight and Jolie's mother, Marcheline Bertrand. Voight was in and out of Jolie's life, and their times together were less than fulfilling. In a rejection of her connection to her dad, Jolie legally removed his last name from hers in 2002 ("Jolie" is her given middle name). The father and daughter reached a sort of peace around 2016; Jolie told Vanity Fair she wanted Voight to be "a cool grandpa" to her six children. 

When it comes to politics, however, Jolie and Voight couldn't be further apart. Whereas Voight is fully backing Donald Trump's re-election campaign, Jolie has long been outspoken against the former POTUS. After then-candidate Trump suggested Muslims be banned from entering the U.S., Jolie spoke out (via CNN), saying, "To me, America is built on people from around the world coming together for freedoms, especially freedom of religion. So it's hard to hear this is coming from someone who is pressing to be an American president."  Trump got in some digs of his own even before taking office; in an interview with Howard Stern (via W), the real estate mogul ranked her looks a 7 out of 10, saying, "She's not a great beauty," and mocked her humanitarian missions. 

Neither Jolie nor Voight has commented on the other's choice of candidate for 2024, but if they plan to spend any part of the holidays together, they'd do well to avoid the topic of Trump.