Maddow Blog-The White House's 'Star Wars' misstep adds to Trump's pop culture woes

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The president and his team tried to have a little fun with an unofficial "Star Wars" holiday, but a red lightsaber proved to be a problem.

Star Wars, Hannibal Lecter, Mutiny on the Bounty, Game of Thrones, Gangs of New York...

Ever get the feeling that maybe Team Trump ought to give up on making pop culture references? www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-05-05T20:07:15.041Z

Star Wars, Hannibal Lecter, Mutiny on the Bounty, Game of Thrones, Gangs of New York...

Ever get the feeling that maybe Team Trump ought to give up on making pop culture references?

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/white-houses-star-wars-misstep-adds-trumps-pop-culture-woes-rcna204918

For “Star Wars” fans, May 4 is an unofficial holiday of sorts, and as Variety noted, the White House apparently wanted to get in on the fun — in the most Trumpian way possible.

The official White House X and Instagram accounts on Sunday posted an AI-generated image of Donald Trump as a beefed-up Jedi in celebration of “Star Wars” day. The post read, “Happy May the 4th to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting so hard to bring Sith Lords, Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, & well known MS-13 Gang Members, back into our Galaxy. You’re not the Rebellion — you’re the Empire. May the 4th be with you.”

.....But in this case, what stood out was not the predictable palaver, but rather, the seemingly AI-generated image of the Republican wielding a red lightsaber — and as fans of the “Star Wars” franchise know, it’s the Sith villains who use red lightsabers, not the Jedi heroes. (New York magazine’s Chas Danner took an even deeper dive into all of the nerdy missteps in the White House-backed image.)

With this in mind, actor Mark Hamill, best known for playing Luke Skywalker, turned to Bluesky to have a little fun at Trump’s expense.

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xyddpg6usmgh2t2jgf4e37yk/post/3loemhqzjrc2d


Stepping back, I can appreciate why Trump and his team want to try to exploit pop culture to advance their message, but it’s hard not to notice just how frequently they flub these efforts.

In 2019, for example, the Republican White House tried to use “Game of Thrones” as part of a clumsy argument about the president’s border-wall project, and the whole thing fell apart rather quickly. A year later, Trump talked about the Captain William Bligh character from “Mutiny on the Bounty,” though it wasn’t altogether clear whether the president realized that Bligh was the villain of the story.

After his defeat in 2020, Trump talked obsessively about Hannibal Lecter, a fictional character, including a weird instance in which he referred to the infamous cannibal from “The Silence of the Lambs,” as “the late, great Hannibal Lecter” and “a wonderful man.”...

Maybe these guys should just steer clear of making pop culture references? They’re clearly not good at it

[BOSSHOG]

1. I wonder if the trump Whitehouse is familiar with

May the Sixth be with you.

[progressoid]

2. The cult sees what the cult wants to see.

[bluesbassman]

3. He's Luke's Dark side alter ego; Puke Skywalker.

I’m always amused at the MAGA obsession with making him all buff in their hilarious AI renderings. That fool was never cut in his entire life, and now he’s a diapered, overweight, stumbling mess, so it’s even more pathetic.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. Nothing will distract @jonstewart from focusing on the issues that mat-- did Trump just botch a Star Wars reference??

Link to tweet