Jim Caviezel appeared on “Fox & Friends” to discuss the continued success of his film, “Sound of Freedom,” which has now made over $100 million at the box office. Caviezel noted that the film’s success has a lot to do with America being “fed up,” particularly with open borders at the America’s southern border with Mexico. Caviezel referenced 85,000 missing children from the border. The figure comes from a New York Times article published in February that noted government officials had lost contact with 85,000 unaccompanied minors that had been placed with sponsors after crossing the US border illegally. While there is no proof that all those children are being trafficked, government agencies have not been able to satisfactorily state where those children are or what they are doing.
Towards the end of the interview, interviewer Brian Kilmeade asked Caviezel and producer Eduardo Verastegui if more could be done for children in trafficking, to which Caviezel responded “We’ve got to start with Donald Trump.” When asked to clarify, Caviezel stated “He’s got to be in there,” seemingly implying Donald Trump should be elected in the 2024 election. “Because he’s going to go after the traffickers,” Caviezel noted. Caviezel and Verastegui stated they had recently met with the former president at a showing he hosted at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. “This is the new Moses,” Caviezel said of Donald Trump. “I mean, I’m still Jesus, but he’s the new Moses,” he added with a laugh. Caviezel linked the comparison to Moses’s efforts to set the people of Israel free from slavery, saying, “Pharaoh, let my children go free.”
The former president praised the film at the showing in Bedminster, saying “Jim, that was unbelievable. Oh, what a job!” of Caviezel’s performance. “You made this the hottest movie anywhere in the world.” He later added, “It’s something that I’m not sure you’re supposed to enjoy or learn. It’s a combination. That was a great movie. And now I understand why it is doing so well.” Tim Ballard, whom Caviezel plays in the movie, also attended the showing, and sat down with Trump and Caviezel for a podcast interview afterwards.
Caviezel’s comment was met with criticism by some, with the Huffington Post releasing an article entitled “Jim Caviezel Calls Donald Trump ‘The New Moses’ And We Can’t Let This Pass Over.” ABC News criticized Donald Trump’s screening of the film, with the headline asserting the former president was trying to “rally evangelicals around the fear of human trafficking. Angel Studios, which released the film, has pushed back at the film’s politicization, saying, “Everyone who’s seen this film knows that it has nothing to do with politics or conspiracy, and that it’s just a great, true story, well-told.”