Alan Ritchson, Image via Screengrab.
A popular TV action star tore into President Donald Trump for his connections to the Epstein files, and the ensuing fallout saw his MAGA followers go into full-on meltdown mode, as highlighted by a report from The Daily Beast.
Alan Ritchson, 43, is an actor best known for playing the lead role on the smash-hit Amazon Prime seriesReacher. As he has been doing the rounds to promote the show's upcoming fourth season, as well as the recent film, Motor City, he sat for an interview with entertainment journalist Josh Horowitz on his podcast, "Happy Sad Confused," and made several comments torching Trump that later went viral across social media. Notably, the actor chastised Trump for his connections to Jeffrey Epstein, accusing him of being "all up into 13-year-olds" while also being in control of "the keys to the nuclear" launch codes.
Ritchson continued to rip into Trump during a later podcast interview, saying, “Look at the politics that we deal with right now. Like, the White House is in ruins, a f—— UFC cage on the lawn. And like, you just do it! You just f—— do it! And nobody says anything!”
While Reacher is a series noted for its potential appeal to conservative audiences, Ritchson himself has never been shy about expressing left-leaning political views. The actor previously went viral online for photos where he could be seen wearing a shirt that said, "Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor." In a 2024 interview, he called Trump "a con man" and called out his fellow Christians for treating him "like he's their poster child." He also once claimed to have been a classmate of former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, and called him an "adversary" and "not a good dude."
In response to Ritchson's latest remarks, several MAGA figures lashed out on social media, as noted by The Daily Beast.
"Alan Ritchson has decided the best use of his time is to attack Trump, and to throw a few jabs in at Catholics for some reason," Trump-supporting actor Kevin Sorbo posted to X. "You’d think he’d be smart enough to keep his mouth shut because fans of Reacher happen to also be right-wing. But nope."
"Why would he piss off half the public as he builds a career?” filmmaker Mike Binder posted to X. “I felt bad for him but worse for the folks that bankrolled him.”
"Its wild how many of these people can’t articulate why they are mad," conservative commentator Tim Pool posted in response to the actor's comments.