Ben Affleck hints Trump win emboldens other celeb candidates: ‘I became qualified to run for president“

OK, we knew this would happen. Politically minded folks in the entertainment biz surely would look at reality-show star turned President-elect Donald Trump’s improbable ascendancy to the highest office in the land and think, “Hey, why not me?”

Move over Kanye and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson – actor Ben Affleck, who has long been involved on the political periphery, might be the one to watch.

“The one great thing about November of 2016 is that all of a sudden I became qualified to run for president,” Affleck said in an interview this week with “Entertainment Tonight.” His credits include the current “Live By Night,” “Argo,” “Gigli” – and a handful of turns testifying on Capitol Hill about the Congo, a region to which he’s devoted philanthropic efforts.

He tells “ET” he likes the idea of public service, and called it “noble.” But unlike so many fresh-faced idealists, Affleck has spent enough time around elected officials to understand the downside of the gig. “It’s just this relentless cash suck, where you’re just glad-handing and making phone calls and doing cocktail parties and trying to gobble up as much money as you can,” he said.