'Empty headed' Donald Trump good for politics, says Bryan Cranston

Donald Trump is "empty headed" but his bid to become the next US president has been good for politics, actor Bryan Cranston has said.

The Breaking Bad star branded Mr Trump a "supreme narcissist" and an "emperor without any clothes" following his controversial campaign to secure the Republican Party's nomination in the presidential election.

Cranston said the billionaire tycoon's rise in politics had "slapped" Americans in the face and he would eventually be "swept to the side".

"I don't want to join the vitriol that Donald Trump represents," Cranston told the Press Association. "He's crude and crass and empty headed.

"He is a supreme narcissist. I don't think that's up for any dispute. Even people who like him say he really loves himself.

"I think his presence is good for our political system. What it has done to people like me, who are just astonished at this man, it's slapped us in the face. It's like, 'Oh my god, this is really happening'.

"I believe that smart people will prevail and common sense will rule and he will soon be swept to the side. That's my hope because he is a truly a man who is the emperor without any clothes. He has no ideas. He floats with the wind."

Cranston, who plays former US president Lyndon B Johnson in new television film All The Way, said Mr Johnson would be "shocked" at the state of modern politics.

"He would be look at Donald Trump now and think, 'Oh my god, what the hell has happened since I've been gone?'.

"If it weren't serious, it would be laughable. Here we have a reality show, game show guy who's now at the top of one of the two parties.

"It's a remarkable creation that has happened here. The rest of the world is probably thinking, 'Have they gone mad?'. But so are we. We're going, 'Oh my god, what has happened?'.

"That there are millions of people who are going to vote for him says something about, perhaps, disenfranchisement. People who are left out. People who don't feel they are being listened to.

"I give him the benefit of the doubt that he loves this country. I believe he believes he loves this country. And I believe he does. It's just I completely disagree with how he wants to improve this country."

Mr Trump is the Republican Party's presumptive nominee for the US presidential election, but has caused controversy with some of his proposed policies, including building a wall on the country's border with Mexico and temporarily banning Muslims from entering America.

:: All The Way airs on Sky Atlantic on June 29 at 9pm.