Lord of the Rings star Ian McKellen claims Donald Trump is 'one of the worst public speakers there has ever been' in bizarre swipe

Lord of the Rings star Sir Ian McKellen has taken a swipe at Donald Trump, accusing him of being a terrible public speaker. 

In an interview with The Times in which the 85-year-old Oscar-winning thespian  offered a withering assessment of the ex-president's abilities in front of a crowd.

'Trump is an absolute bewilderment. I haven't seen him live. But he's one of the worst public speakers there has ever been,' he actor told the outlet.

'Whether he's reading a script or not, it's so patent what he is.'

 McKellen also revealed that when he gets home from an evening performance he shuts off the outside world and switches on left-leaning CNN, which may explain his comments about the Republican presidential hopeful. 

Sir Ian McKellen criticized Donald Trump as a terrible public speaker during an interview this weekend

Sir Ian McKellen continues to work on stage and screen, with six stage roles alone in the three years since theaters reopened since the pandemic

McKellen's also admitted when he was a child he loved nothing more than cycling down to the town square to see Welsh Labor Party leader 'Aneurin Bevan on the hustings without a microphone'. 

'There aren't any great orators like that around,' he said, adding that politicians 'don't spend enough time looking at themselves and saying, 'Well, I didn't believe that person.'' 

McKellan's comments were met with ridicule in the U.S., with Nicholas Borelli saying on X: 'We prefer Trump 's excellent policies and governance to oration. Obama spoke well, performed poorly. Joe Biden speaks poorly, performs poorly,' stated Nicholas Borelli.

A commentator on conservative website The Western Journal also rose to Trump's defense, declaring McKellen's comments to be 'so odd'.

'If you concede the actor's point and accept his premise that Trump's a terrible orator … what does that make the highly correctable Biden? Unintelligible? Incoherent? Undecipherable?', asked Bryan Chai. 

'Trump is an absolute bewilderment. I haven't seen him live. But he's one of the worst public speakers there has ever been. Whether he's reading a script or not, it's so patent what he is,' McKellen said

Trump speaks at a dinner at Mar-a-Lago last week.  Now that his criminal trial in New York has wrapped up, the former president has scheduled a number of fundraising events 

'Given that every American (even Democrats, deep down inside) knows the answer to the above question, critics of Donald Trump would do best to steer away from any mention of oratory skills, at least until November,' he said. 

McKellen has had a career  meanwhile, has no issues with his oratory skills having enjoyed a career spanning more than 60 years.

While he continues to work on stage and screen, with six stage roles alone in the three years since theaters reopened since the covid lockdowns, he still takes care to pick his next script, fearing that each one might be his last.

McKellen portrayed the wizard in six feature films between 2001 and 2014. He is pictured in The Return Of The King from 2003

'If you want to know that you are mortal you just have to look at your address book. And so when a script comes through, or the hint of an offer, you think, 'This might be my last job. No. I'm not doing that.'' 

He notes how there are rumors of a new Lord of the Rings film and that he might be asked to reprise his role as the wizard, Gandalf, 'if I'm alive.'

'But there is no script, there is no offer, there is no plan,' he notes dryly.

McKellen portrayed the wizard in six feature films between 2001 and 2014.