Tim Allen says he's the reason Donald Trump chose politics over Hollywood

Tim Allen has suggested that he's the reason why Donald Trump opted to pursue politics instead of Hollywood.

The 79-year-old was looking to break into the film industry when he first met the American actor and comedian, having established himself on The US Apprentice and as a guest star in Home Alone: Lost in New York.

However, Allen, who recently spoke out about his own father's death after being inspired by Erika Kirk, was quick to convince Trump that the film industry wasn't an easy one to make money in.

Love or hate Trump, there's no doubting his skills as a businessman and he was never likely to take the risk of going into the film industry after Allen's comments, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Speaking in 2021, Allen revealed: “I met the dude at a dinner with his wife, who was genuinely a wonderful person. I think it was the second-to-last year of The Apprentice.

Donald Trump was looking to break into Hollywood after his success with The Apprentice in the 2000s (Amanda Edwards/Getty Images)

"And he was thinking of moving to Los Angeles and being a movie producer, and he was talking about movies. He said, 'I really like the film business'. He, like, completely decided at that moment, I’m not gonna get in this business.

“He said, 'so if we got a studio together, let’s say the movie cost around $1 million'," Allen recalled. “And then I said, 'you gotta double that, at least for the promotion'… He goes, 'What if the ticket sales are slow?'

"You lose. And he goes, 'But you gotta make up the loss somehow. How do you make up the loss?'

"I said, 'Well, there’ll be some tax benefit, but you lose the money. That’s how come the studios struggle. They looking for winners. You amortise your loss with losers over winners.’ He goes, ‘Oh.’

"He says, 'If I buy a bad building, and it won’t sell, I still have the f***ing building. If you have a s****y movie...'” Allen recalled. “And he says, 'No, this is not an easy business'.”

This might have been one to keep to yourself Tim (Nic Antaya/Getty Images)

After finding this out, you'd imagine that a lot of people would want to take Allen off their Christmas card list, but it's a little hard to do that to Santa Claus himself.

Trump, of course, would go on to become the US president on two separate occasions, and his second term in the White House has been filled with controversy.

Whether it's sending thousands of people to one of the world's worst prisons, banning a huge number of countries from the US or introducing trade tariffs, there's no doubt that world's population is split when it comes to perhaps the world's most powerful man.

Given that Trump has already abducted the president of Venezuela in the first few days of 2026, Allen may well be wishing he'd had some different advice when he first met Trump, as the Toy Story actor probably doesn't want to feel like he was the domino effect that might lead to WW3.