Donald Trump had an unexpected visitor in the White House earlier this week – Wedding Crashers star Vince Vaughn.
On Friday (18 April), the official White House Instagram account shared an image of the actor, 55, alongside the president, 78, in the Oval Office.
The Bad Monkey star stood with his hand on the back of Trump’s chair while the president sat at his desk.
In a bizarre twist, the image was also mocked up to resemble a film poster, with the words “White House Crashers” placed above the two men, in a nod to Vaughn’s previous role in the 2005 comedy.
Comments on the Instagram post were inevitably divided, with some followers criticising Vaughn’s decision to pose alongside the president and sharing their “disbelief” at the image, and others praising the actor.
According to US political website The Hill, the White House did not formally list the visit on the President’s schedule for reporters.
The Independent has contacted representatives for Vaughn for further comment.
Vaughn has previously described himself as a political “libertarian”, and has stated that he isn’t aligned with the Republican or Democrat parties.
“I definitely am a believer more in allowing individuals to make choices,” he told the New York Times last year. “So I think that drugs should be legal and people should have guns.”
“I’d rather say let people make their choices, and they can make different choices and have the consequences of their choices,” he added.
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Vaughn previously faced backlash in 2020 when footage emerged showing him shaking hands with Trump at a college football game during the president’s first term.
Many took the video as proof that the actor was a Trump supporter, but in an interview with the LA Times, Vaughn clarified that he has always been “cordial” to the politicians he’s met.
“In my career I’ve met a lot of politicians who I’ve always been cordial to,” he said. “I’ve met [Democrat] Nancy Pelosi and was cordial to her as well.”
“I don’t have a party that I support and endorse,” he continued. “In fact, for me sometimes it’s difficult to find a candidate that you feel is philosophically consistent and not just going along with whoever is funding their particular party.
“That’s as much as I’ll get into it at this point.”