Actor Dick Van Dyke, who turns 99 next month, suggested he would happily not be around to see the next four years under President-elect Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.
While some celebrities threaten to leave the United States in response to the 2024 presidential election results, Van Dyke’s Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) has taken an even more radical turn, with the actor saying he is grateful he won’t be alive to experience the 45th president’s second term.
“Fortunately, I won’t be around to experience the four years,” the Mary Poppins star said in response to a reporter who asked, “Do you think Donald Trump is capable of making America great again?”
After being asked, “Does the future look bright for America?” Van Dyke replied, “I hope you’re right,” while his wife reacted by saying, “Oh man.”
Notably, the actor endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in an Election Eve Instagram post in which he bizarrely likened the 2024 election and today’s political climate to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement by reading a speech he had originally delivered at an event with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on May 31, 1964.
After concluding the reiteration of his 1964 speech, Van Dyke said, “A lot has happened” since 1964, before claiming it is “not so much as Martin Luther dreamed of, but it’s a start.”
While Van Dyke did not mention Harris or Trump by name in his Instagram video, the actor made his endorsement clear by writing “VOTE!!! @kamalaharris @vp @kamalahq” in the caption of his post.
The next day, Trump won the 2024 presidential election against Harris in a landslide victory with 312 of the Electoral College vote, winning all seven of this year’s swing states, as well as the popular vote, outperforming his own election results from 2016, when he won 304 of the Electoral College vote against Hillary Clinton.
Trump is also the first president in more than 130 years — and the second in U.S. history — to win a non-consecutive second term.
The 45th and soon-to-be 47th president’s sweeping victory also came after he survived two assassination attempts on his life within the span of two months — the first of which transpired on July 13 when Trump was struck in the ear with a bullet while delivering remarks at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.