Video footage of Mel Gibson and Russell Brand attending an event at President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate has gone viral on social media.
Actor and filmmaker Gibson and comedian-turned-podcaster Brand were among a host of prominent Trump supporters who descended on the onetime real estate mogul’s sprawling property in Palm Beach, Florida, to attend a gala for nonprofit America’s Future.
Chaired by retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, America’s Future describes itself as “the nation’s leader in the fight to preserve American values and ideals, protect the nation’s Constitutional Republic, promote strong American families, revitalize the role of faith in our society, and advance the virtues of free market capitalism.”
On Tuesday, Brand took to X, formerly Twitter, to share footage of himself attending the America’s Future event alongside Gibson. The footage showed other familiar faces among the attendees, including musician Kid Rock and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
In the clip, British-born Brand was seen arriving at the property via a chauffeur-driven SUV after stepping off a jet as he said of his surroundings, “It’s nice here.”
After greeting other attendees, Brand was then shown sitting beside Gibson at a table as he told onlookers: “I’m very grateful to be in a double act with Mel Gibson all of a sudden.”
Later, while eating a meal, Brand said to the camera: “My life’s changed quite a lot. A little while ago, I was a vegan living a simple life in Grays, Essex [U.K.]. But now I’m eating steak at Mar-a-Lago. Funny how the world changes.”
Brand was also shown concluding a speech in his signature quickfire style, after which a laughing and applauding Gibson said: “I gotta follow that?”
Describing a bagpipe player’s performance on Mar-a-Lago’s grounds as “pretty amazing,” Brand was shown asking: “Is this real life, or are we in a dream? Is this what happens every day at Mar-a-Lago?”
In the video’s concluding seconds, Brand was shown discussing his sobriety and Christian faith. He announced in April that he had been baptized.
Amanda Edwards/Getty Images;/MelMedia/Getty Images;/Joe Raedle/Getty Images
As of press time, the video has garnered more than 1.4 million views.
Brand emerged as a supporter of Trump in the months leading up to November’s presidential election. In July, ahead of President Biden dropping out of the race and being replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris, Brand spoke about whom he was backing.
“In a straight choice between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, if you care about democracy, if you care about freedom, I don’t know how you could do anything other than vote for Donald Trump for precisely the reasons that they claim that you can’t,” he said on his Stay Free With Russell Brand podcast at the time.
Gibson discussed his voting plans in the weeks leading up to the presidential election. When asked by a cameraman in a clip shared by TMZ if he would vote for Trump, Gibson replied: “That’s a pretty good guess.”
The Daily Beast said that Gibson, who is known to be a devout Christian, on Tuesday described the Biden administration as “four years of thinly veiled Marxism” and the incoming Trump administration as “a four-year grace period.”
“We’ll see how much this administration can claw back from the Philistines,” Gibson is quoted as saying at the America’s Future event.
In January, Trump shared a meme featuring Gibson on Truth Social platform about the 2024 election. The meme showed a photo of a clean-cut Gibson with the text, “Me voting for Trump in 2016.” The image was placed alongside a photo of Gibson from the film Braveheart with the accompanying text, “Me voting for Trump in 2024.”
Captioning the post, Trump wrote: “Either way, Mel Gibson is GREAT!”
