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On Thursday, Donald Trump gave a speech at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) Gala that took place at Mar-a-Lago. He was introduced by “Rocky” actor and filmmaker Sylvester Stallone, who gave a brief but impactful speech. He only spoke for a couple of minutes, but his brief remarks are making waves on social media.

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I was honestly surprised when I found out that Stallone was going to be there. He’s been not entirely forthcoming about his politics, and the last I heard, he didn’t vote for Trump in 2020 or 2016.

“I’m sitting back on this one, I know Joe Biden, great guy,” Stallone told Variety in 2019. “I try to really stay out of it even though everyone assumes I’m hardcore right, which is not true.”

He added, “I won’t go to fundraisers; I won’t do anything. I’m just an old filmmaker and that’s it.”

And as far as I can tell, he never publicly endorsed anyone in this cycle.

But there he was, introducing Trump at the event. The Daily Beast described his appearance as “coming out of the MAGA closet.” I guess that’s true.

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“I didn’t expect this, but I’ll just keep it short and sweet because there’s no such a thing as a speech too short,” Stallone began his Mar-a-Lago speech.

“When I did ‘Rocky,’ if you remember, the first image was a picture of Jesus, and it says, ‘Resurrection A.C. Club.’ I found a church that had been converted to a boxing ring. So the image pans down from Jesus onto Rocky being hit.”

You can watch the opening scene here:

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Stallone continued:

And in that moment he was a chosen person, and that’s how I began the journey—something was going to happen. This man was going to go through a metamorphosis and change lives, just like President Trump. We are in the presence of a really mythical character. I love mythology, and this individual does not exist on this planet. Nobody in the world could have pulled off what he pulled off. So I’m in awe.

And I’ll just say this, and I mean it: When George Washington defended his country, he had no idea that he was going to change the world because without him you could imagine what the world would look like.

Stallone concluded, “Guess what? We got the second George Washington. Congratulations.”

During his speech, Trump called the 2024 election “most consequential election” and gloated over his popular vote victory.

“They would say, ‘he didn’t win the popular vote.’ And we won the popular vote by records now, which so nobody can say that anymore about us,” Trump told the crowd.

He also celebrated his newly selected Cabinet members and senior administration officials, many of whom were in attendance.

Newly announced picks who attended the annual gala on Thursday evening, including Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Notably, Trump did not give a shout out to former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who he had announced as his attorney general and who was also in attendance.

As he provided pleasantries to several members in the room, Trump transitioned into complimenting Musk, with whom he’s spent a significant amount of time since his victory. 

“We have a man who has a seriously high IQ. You know, I’m a person that believes in high IQs, and his is about as high as they get,” Trump said, thanking him for campaigning in Pennsylvania on his behalf.

Trump then touted his pairing of Ramasamy and Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency.

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Trump also revealed that he would be naming Doug Burgum as his secretary of interior.