Actor Billy Baldwin ended his long friendship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after the former presidential candidate suspended his bid as an independent to endorse Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“I have known Bobby Kennedy Jr. for decades,” Baldwin began a long social media post publicly severing his relationship with the 70-year-old Kennedy.
According to Baldwin, not only was Kennedy a friend and a neighbor, but their children were friends, too. He and Kennedy even shared political views, according to the 61-year-old brother of Emmy Award winner Alec Baldwin.
Baldwin claims Kennedy had several opportunities to enter politics throughout his life, but finally did so out of desperation in the 2024 presidential race because time was running out on the ambitious septuagenarian.
“It was a Hail Mary,” Baldwin charged.
With polling showing Kennedy stuck at around 5%, the Democratic Party scion withdrew from the race last week and got behind Trump’s election efforts.
“His endorsement of Trump demonstrates his political cowardice,” Baldwin wrote.
Baldwin, like his more famous older brother, supports Democratic candidates. Kennedy’s family has arguably become the most celebrated political clan in the United States over the past century. RFK Jr.’s decision to break ranks drew criticism and pity from several family members, as Baldwin notes in his X post.
“Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and family hold most dear,” five of his relatives wrote in an open letter posted online. “It is a sad ending to a sad story.”
Kennedy’s family had earlier spoke out against his candidacy in a statement questioning his values and judgment.
“I too completely disavow and dissociate myself from Bobby Kennedy Jr.,” Baldwin said in his digital Dear John letter.
Baldwin responded to critics on social media by stating “things like ethics, values, morals, principles, character, integrity, loyalty, truth, facts, democracy… all mean for more to me than his or any friendship.”
To his siblings’ chagrin, Stephen Baldwin, the youngest of the four Baldwin brothers, has expressed support for Trump.