Rod Stewart says that the presidency has changed Donald Trump — whom he once knew “very well” — into someone he doesn’t recognize.
“I’m not a great fan of Trump,” the “Maggie May” singer said in an interview with the Radio Times published Tuesday.
“I knew him very, very well. I used to go to his house,” Stewart said.
The Grammy Award winner said his Florida home is “literally half a mile away” from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.
“I used to go to his Christmas parties. He’s always been a bit of a man’s man. I liked him for that. But he didn’t, as far as I’m concerned, treat women very well,” Stewart said.
“But since he became president, he became another guy. Somebody I didn’t know,” the 80-year-old British songwriter said of Trump.
Asked by the publication if he still considered Trump a friend, Stewart sharply criticized the president’s support of Israel.
“No, I can’t anymore. As long as he’s selling arms to the Israelis — and he still is. How’s that war ever gonna stop?” Stewart asked.
In February, the Trump administration announced a $7 billion arms sale to Israel.
“Someone’s gotta do something. What [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] is doing to the Palestinians is exactly what happened to the Jews,” Stewart said.
Last month, Netanyahu said Israel would control all of the Gaza Strip and its military would steer food and aid distribution to Palestinians in the strip in coordination with U.S. companies. The move came following nearly three months of a blockade that drew widespread international condemnation, which Israel had said was needed to pressure Hamas to release dozens of hostages it kidnapped from Israel during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
“It’s annihilation, and that’s all he wants to do – get rid of them all,” Stewart said of Netanyahu.
“I don’t know how they sleep at night,” he said.
