Ex-president calls Hopkins’ cannibalistic Lecter ‘late, great’ while condemning ‘people who are being released into our country’

Ex-president calls Hopkins’ cannibalistic Lecter ‘late, great’ while condemning ‘people who are being released into our country’

Donald Trump on Saturday praised fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter “as a wonderful man” before segueing into comments disparaging people who have immigrated into the US without permission.

The former president’s remarks to political rally-goers in Wildwood, New Jersey, as he challenges Joe Biden’s re-election in November were a not-so-subtle rhetorical bridge exalting Anthony Hopkins’ cannibalistic Lecter in Silence of the Lambs as “late [and] great” while simultaneously condemning “people who are being released into our country that we don’t want”.

Trump delivered his address to an estimated crowd of about 80,000 supporters under the shadow of the Great White roller coaster in a 1950s-kitsch seaside resort 90 miles (144.8km) south of Philadelphia.

The occasion served for Trump to renew his stated admiration for Lecter, as he’s done before, after the actor Mads Mikkleson – who previously portrayed Lecter in a television series – once described Trump as “a fresh wind for some people”.

  • FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
    75·
    6 months ago

    I’m honestly baffled as to why a movie character would even come up in a political speech, much less this incoherently.

    And yes, it’s a quote, it’s a funny line… why is he using it? It’s utterly silly. I’m also confused by the ‘late, great’ as if this was an actual person who had died, as opposed to a fictional character who hasn’t died in any book, movie or show I’m familiar with. And Anthony Hopkins is very much alive as well, as is writer Thomas Harris.

    It doesn’t make any… goddamn… sense.

    Please don’t elect this guy again.

    • Kit
      25·
      6 months ago

      Apparently this isn’t the first time that he has related illegal immigrants to Hannibal. I’m not sure what he means by this - is he implying they’re cannibals?

      • FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
        13·
        6 months ago

        Heck, maybe he’s hoping Hannibal Lecter likes Mexican food, if you know what I mean.

        God only knows what Trump’s thinking. Though he’s likely to be as confused as the rest of us mere mortals…

      • triptrapper@lemmy.world
        2·
        6 months ago

        Well as a native English speaker, I didn’t see how he’s relating the two at all. He’s just saying two unrelated things one after the other, with no segue. It’s just braindead.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        Maybe he’s getting hungry while he’s up there rambling and thinking he wants to eat them. Maybe someone told him about Swift’s A Modest Proposal and he didn’t realize it was satire, but maybe thought it was a good idea.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      6 months ago

      I’m thinking he’s gone beyond RFK jr - he has brain worms and mercury poisoning. But also lead poisoning, possibly Adderall/cocaine abuse…