Schwarzenegger Tells Kimmel He Is 'Absolutely' Still a Republican, Pointing to Reagan

Arnold Schwarzenegger walked onto one of the most liberal stages on television this week and said something its audience did not expect to hear: he is still a Republican.

Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel's ABC show on Wednesday, the former California governor told the host he is "absolutely" a Republican, according to The Western Journal, which reported that he also took a swipe at Obamacare during the exchange. Fox News reported that Schwarzenegger pointed to Ronald Reagan as the kind of Republican leader he admires.

The Washington Times noted that he made the case in spite of his disagreements with the modern GOP. That is the part of the story worth sitting with. Schwarzenegger did not pretend to agree with everything his party does. He simply refused to hand the label over to anyone else.

This was not the first time Kimmel has pressed the point. NewsBusters described the question as a seemingly annual tradition on the show, with the host asking whether, and why, Schwarzenegger still considers himself a Republican.

This year Kimmel pushed harder. According to NewsBusters, he argued that causes such as abolishing slavery and protecting voting rights are "the opposite" of what today's Republican Party stands for.

Schwarzenegger has had real differences with President Trump, and he did not hide them. The Times of India reported that he recalled Trump asking him to campaign for him in 2016 and that he declined, citing his views on climate change and pollution, while still describing himself as a Republican.

The two-term governor, who first won office in California's 2003 recall election, has spent years as one of the party's most independent voices. He has broken with Republican leaders on the environment and other issues, and nobody should expect him to stop. But disagreement inside a party is not the same thing as leaving it, and that is the distinction Kimmel's audience seemed to struggle with.

Kimmel's claim about slavery deserves an answer, because it gets the history exactly backwards. The Republican Party was founded on March 20, 1854, to oppose the expansion of slavery into the western territories. Its first president was Abraham Lincoln. The party's founding cause was freedom for the enslaved, and Republican majorities in Congress carried the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, which abolished slavery, guaranteed equal protection under the law and protected the right to vote regardless of race.

A late-night host can argue about what the party should do in 2026. He cannot rewrite what it did in 1854 or 1865. When Schwarzenegger reaches back to Reagan, he is reaching for a tradition that runs straight through Lincoln: limited government, a strong defense, free markets and the conviction that liberty is a gift from God, not a favor from the state.

That tradition is also why an immigrant bodybuilder from a small Austrian village could become a movie star and then the governor of the nation's largest state. Schwarzenegger has often described America as the land of opportunity that made his life possible. The party of work, ambition and freedom that Reagan championed is the one he says he still calls home.

For those of us who follow the talk business, the segment was a reminder of how rarely a Republican voice gets a fair hearing on network late-night television. The format usually runs one way, with the monologue mocking conservatives and the guests nodding along. When a guest pushes back, even gently, it stands out.

The appearance also lands at a moment when Republicans are debating their own direction after a painful midterm. Some conservatives will bristle at Schwarzenegger's criticism of the party, and fairly so; his break with Trump over climate policy is a real disagreement, not a misunderstanding. But a man who could easily have won applause by renouncing his party instead told a skeptical room he is staying. In a culture that rewards people for walking away, staying put and arguing from the inside is its own kind of loyalty.

The party of Reagan has always been a big tent with sharp debates under it. Schwarzenegger's message to Kimmel was that he still wants a seat at that table, and that the Republican story is bigger than any one election, any one president or any one comedian's punch line.

For viewers used to hearing only one side after the late local news, it was a refreshing few minutes. And for Republicans still sorting through the midterm results, it was a reminder that the party's founding principles carry weight, even in Hollywood.