86-YEAR OLD DIRECTOR TO 120-YEAR OLD INDUSTRY: Please Keep Hiring Me to Spend Your Money! Gladiator II director Ridley Scott compares Denzel Washington’s character to Trump: ‘A clever gangster.’

Ridley Scott, the director of “Gladiator II,” said during an interview that Denzel Washington’s character in the movie, Marcinus, was similar to President-elect Trump.

“[Macrinus] was a prisoner of war — probably at a North African state — and actually was taken to Rome probably as a gladiator. Survived. Got free. Got into the business of maybe making wine and bread. He evolved into a very rich merchant selling s— to the Roman armies — food, oil, wine, cloth, weapons, everything. He maybe had a million men spread around Europe. So he was a billionaire at the time, so why wouldn’t he [have ambitions toward the throne]? ‘Why not me?’ He’s also a gangster — very close to Trump. A clever gangster. He creates chaos and from chaos he can evolve,” Scott told The Hollywood Reporter.

I’m so old, I can remember when comparing an American president to a gangster was the highest compliment: Quote of the Day: Obama Should ‘Go Gangsta.’ CNN columnist Roland Martin urges the president to unleash his inner Al Capone.