‘The View’: Arnold Schwarzenegger Avoids Getting Political — to Hosts’ Frustration (VIDEO)

Amanda Bell June 17, 2025, 12:13 pm

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Alyssa Farah Griffin on The View — ABC

Arnold Schwarzenegger was the featured guest on Tuesday’s (June 17) edition of The View, promoting the second season premiere of his action-comedy series FUBAR on Netflix. The multi-hyphenate wasn’t just on hand to talk about his acting skills, however. He was also asked to weigh in on current events, given his unique credentials as an immigrant who made it all the way to the governorship of the country’s biggest state, California. His background is especially relevant to the ongoing clash between Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom over the president’s decision to send National Guard and Marine troops to the state above the governor’s objection. However, some of his answers, which were predominantly neutral in nature, seemed to frustrate some of the cohosts, who jumped in to offer their corrections in real time.

“As the former governor of California, my home state, California, has been in the headlines. Obviously, there have been these huge protests of immigration policies. He threatened to potentially arrest Gavin Newsom if he didn’t comply. If you were governor right now of California, how would you be handling the on ongoing crisis that the state’s facing?” Alyssa Farah Griffin asked.

“Well, I think the most important thing is — when you are in a leadership position like that… you are inclusive and that you work together with everybody. And so it means that you have to work together with local government, the state government, and the federal government have to work together rather than fighting each other, fighting each other’s agendas and all of that stuff that doesn’t do good to anybody,” Schwarzenegger said in response. “And so that’s number one. Number two, the most important thing is to create immigration reform, because all this is happening because we don’t have immigration reform. For decades now, this country has needed immigration reform, which means that we recognize the fact there’s people in the south of America that want to come north to work, and that we therefore should supply them with enough visas so they can come, because we need those workers.”

He continued, “So this is the bottom line. Because then we would know who is here, we will be able to get rid of the criminal elements that are here and all this stuff, so we wouldn’t be in a mess that we’re in right now. So this is my way of saying always, Democrats and Republicans have to come together and solve this issue. If they really want to be public servants, if they want to be party servants, to be party hacks and be tight with their ideology, then it won’t happen. But if you want to make this country better, and if you want to improve this country and improve the situation of people’s lives, and bring the prices down of this, you will go and serve the people of America. This is what it is if you’re a public servant, that’s what you’re supposed to you know? That’s what I would do if I’m Governor.”

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His middle-of-the-road answer appeared to bother some of the cohosts. Joy Behar noted, for example, “But you are, but you know, as an immigrant yourself, you are an immigrant. You’re an immigrant in this country. Did you have a visceral reaction to what they’re doing, what ICE is doing when you see the videos of it?”

To that, Schwarzenegger said, “Well, I tell you, as you said an immigrant, I’m so proud and happy that I was embraced by the American people like that. I mean, imagine I came over here at the age of 21 with absolutely nothing, and then to create a career like that. I mean, in no other country in the world could you do that. Every single thing, if it’s my bodybuilding career, if it’s my acting career, becoming governor, the beautiful family that I’ve created, all this is because America is strong.”

“That’s true,” Behar agreed.

“And so this is why I’m so, so happy to say firsthand that this is the greatest country in the world, and because I’m such a proud American and a proud immigrant who came to America, I was asked to do, on July 4, a big speech, the keynote speech at Mount Vernon where George Washington is at rest where he lived, and all that, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America, the existence of America. Now we’ll be doing the speech that they asked me, because I’m an immigrant, and there will be 7,000 some people there, and there will be people that will be sworn in and will become citizens that day. So it’s really a great, great celebration. This is what this is all about, is to celebrate people becoming Americans and coming to America and all that,” Schwarzenegger continued.

Schwarzenegger, who was a Republican but endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, continued, “The key thing also is at the same time that we got to do things legally. That is the important thing. You got to do things legal. And those people that are doing illegal things in America, and they are foreigners, they are not smart, because when you come to America, you’re a guest, and you have to behave like a guest. Like when I go to someone’s house, I’m a guest, then they will do everything I can, keep things clean and to make my bed and to do everything that is the right thing to do, rather than committing a crime or being abusive or something like that. So that doesn’t really work in this country. So I think the important thing is, when you become an immigrant, to think about, ‘Okay, I go to America because I want to use America for the great opportunities that America has in education, in jobs, creating a family, all of those kind of things,’ then you have to think about, ‘Okay, if I get all of those things from America, then I have to give something back.’ You have a responsibility as an immigrant to give back to America and to pay back to America, and to go and do something for your community, for no money whatsoever, give something back to after school program, Special Olympics, or whatever it is that you [specialize in].”

In response to that, Whoopi Goldberg, who Schwarzenegger earlier called a personal friend of decades, noted, “Don’t forget, 90% of the people who come here are trying to do the right thing.”

“They’re less likely to commit crimes,” Sunny Hostin added.

“And a lot of what’s happening right now is people are getting snatched who shouldn’t be snatched out the country, people who have visas, people who have all those things. So we want all the right people,” Goldberg continued.

“And the other thing I just wanted to say is that Governor Newsom did not ask for the National Guard to come, for the federal government to come to California,” Hostin then said.

“Look, this is a whole other issue because, remember, the National Guard is under the governor’s supervision,” Schwarzenegger responded. “But like, for instance, when the National Guard was sent to Iraq during the Iraqi war. I was not the one that said, ‘Oh yeah, go and go to Iraq.’ The Bush administration came and said, ‘We need those people, and we need the resources, we need the equipment, we need the weapons, we need the vehicles to ship to Iraq.’ And then I said, ‘It is very important that we work together. Doesn’t matter who is asking. The bottom line is, we work together in order to solve the problem.'”

“Yeah, can’t just go on and do stuff. We all got to do it together,” Goldberg said in support.

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: “Democrats and Republicans have to come together and solve [immigration reform] if they really want to be public servants. If they want to be party servants … it won’t happen.” pic.twitter.com/HkUOH6FkhQ

— The View (@TheView) June 17, 2025