‘Desperate’: Billy Baldwin denounces ex-friend RFK Jr for endorsing Trump

The actor Billy Baldwin has dismissed Robert F Kennedy Jr as a former friend while accusing him of betraying his values - as well as selling his political soul - after the erstwhile independent presidential candidate suspended his campaign and endorsed Donald Trump.

The rebuke from the 61-year-old Baldwin - the younger brother of fellow actor Alec Baldwin - added to the wave of blowback against Kennedy for his support of the former president. Kennedy himself acknowledged his wife - the actor Cheryl Hines - was "very uncomfortable" with his backing Trump. And his brother Max Kennedy published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times imploring the public to ignore Robert F Kennedy Jr's maneuvering.

Baldwin, in a lengthy post on X, explained that he has known Kennedy for decades.

"We were friends," Baldwin wrote. "I loved his politics. His speeches inspired me. We were neighbors. Our kids were friends. We carpooled the kids to school for a few years."

But now the actor said he has "completely" disavowed and dissociated from Kennedy.

In the statement, Baldwin criticized Kennedy's actions as the "desperate move of a man who had presidential ambitions but saw the door rapidly closing on the opportunity for him to hold any political office". Baldwin added that the entire run "was a Hail Mary" - a phrase often used to describe a pass thrown in desperation but with little chance of success in the game of American football.

Kennedy on Friday announced that he was suspending his independent White House campaign and then publicly endorsed Trump at a political rally alongside the Republican nominee in Arizona.

Kennedy said that he and Trump had met several times and that they were "aligned on many key issues" - despite his reportedly having called him "a terrible human being", "probably a sociopath" and the "[worst] president ever".

But, as Max Kennedy wrote, Robert F Kennedy Jr had also offered the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, his endorsement in exchange for a position in her administration if she won - though he received no response and then successfully offered the same deal to Trump.

Baldwin described Kennedy's endorsement of Trump as "not only a betrayal of the values and traditions of the Kennedy family" but also an act of "political cowardice". Kennedy's father was the former US senator and attorney general Robert F Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 as he pursued the Democratic presidential nomination. His uncle was John F Kennedy, the Democratic president assassinated in 1963.

Baldwin's remarks echo the sentiments of five of Kennedy's siblings, who in a joint statement recently said his endorsement of Trump betrayed their father's family values.

Kennedy on Sunday appeared on Fox News and addressed his siblings' anger, saying that the family was "able to disagree with each other and still love each other".

Over the weekend, Kennedy's campaign told CBS News that he had lost his Secret Service protection after suspending his campaign. That protection had been afforded to Kennedy after the failed 13 July assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania.