Herschel Walker recently opened up about his nearly 40-year friendship with President Donald Trump.
The former football star told Pittsburgh radio station KDKA that they were fast friends when they first met in 1983. That’s when Walker joined the New Jersey Generals, the USFL team Trump owned. But he said that their bond went further than football.
“We became friends – and not just casual friend as owner/player – but we became like, like almost like family friends. You know, he ate at my home, I ate at his home, his kids were with me during the summer a lot,” Walker said. “And we’ve been friends ever since.”
Herschel Walker said Trump Friendship Has Cost Him
Walker, 58, said he treasures his bond with Trump. Though, it has come with a price. He told USA Today that he’s lost friends because he’s an outspoken advocate of the president and his policies.
“I lost some friends, and that’s what’s so strange about it,” he said. “How could in a country like America you disagree with someone that you now want to injure that person or you just don’t want to talk to them no more? Where did it get that you become a country like that?’’
The Heisman Trophy winner said the president’s critics often misconstrue or misrepresent his statements and beliefs, The Hill reported. Walker said he takes it personally when people do that. Especially when someone accuses Trump of being a racist.
“The worst one is racist,” he said, according to The Hill. “I take it as a personal insult that people think I would have a 37-year friendship with a racist.
“People who think that don’t know what they’re talking about. Growing up in the Deep South I’ve seen racism up close. I know what it is, and it isn’t Donald Trump.”
The former “Celebrity Apprentice” contestant even asked if he could speak at the Republican National Convention in August. He said he wanted to defend his friend against those kinds of accusations.
“He didn’t even ask me to speak up. I decided to speak up on my own during the convention,” Walker said of his RNC speech. “He didn’t even know I was going to do that. I told the people I wanted to do it because I knew the man, I knew the way he is.”
