Davos WEF
Davos WEF

Matt Damon: Trump has 'a lot of work cut out for him' but we have to root for him

President-elect Donald Trump has "a lot of work cut out for him" but Americans need to be "rooting for him", Oscar-winning actor Matt Damon said on Wednesday, even though he supported Democrat rival Hillary Clinton during the election.

Speaking at a CNBC-hosted panel during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Damon spoke about his charity Water.org and also what he hopes to see from the Trump administration.

"First of all, I wish him well and we all must. A successful American president is good for all of us and we really have to be rooting for him right now," Damon said.

"Obviously, it's no secret that I didn't vote for him. And yeah, I think there is a sense of we are heading into new territory here. He is obviously not a career politician, he has been very occupied with his own business interest, which are relatively narrow given the scope of what a president actually has to deal with, so I imagine he is really working hard right now to master so many sectors. He's just got a lot of work cut out for him."


Matt Damon at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
David A. Grogan | CNBC

Damon said that he doesn't know what Trump's policy will be on foreign aid but "we can just hope for the best."

"The Bourne Identity" star was a vocal supporter of Clinton during the U.S. presidential election and remarked last year that a potential Trump presidency made him "nervous". Damon was critical of Trump's stance on several issues including immigration but said he believes the President-elect will tone down his rhetoric.

"He's about to become the most consequential person on the planet … it's a massive burden … it's such an enormous amount of responsibility, so I suspect he will change," Damon said.

"A sentence from a president can move a market on the other side of the world and I think these guys become aware of that very quickly and you see them become very circumspect with how they speak and very measured, and I think we have to assume that will happen with him as well."

Matt Damon's clean water crusade
VIDEO6:0306:03
Matt Damon's clean water crusade

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