Screenshot of Trump’s ad showing a clip fromĀ Full Metal Jacket, with Vincent D’Onofrio and Matthew Modine (center)
Former President Donald Trump posted a video of a web ad attacking the Biden-Harris administration for allegedly seeking to create a “woke” military more concerned about LGBTQ representation than being “tough.”
Trump — who like other Republicans, has seized upon LGBTQ issues as one way to appeal to the party’s socially conservative base voters — has previously made the same attack at some of his campaign rallies.
The ad compares two conflicting “visions” of the military in Trump’s view. For Trump’s military vision, it includes clips from Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 war epic Full Metal Jacket. For Kamala Harris, meanwhile, it depicts a military that cherishes and respects the LGBTQ community, which the former president considers ruinous.
Ironically, Full Metal JacketĀ is an anti-war, anti-military movie, as the drill sergeant shown — R. Lee Ermey — abusing members of the platoon meets his fate when a recruit (Vincent D’Onofrio) he has pushed to the breaking point shoots him dead before committing suicide.Ā
To show what the military would look like under “Comrade Kamala,” the ad utilizes a clip of Admiral Rachel Levine, the Assistant Secretary of Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, wishing LGBTQ military members a happy Pride Month and saying, “Let’s make it a summer of Pride.”
The ad also uses clips from what appear to be three separate TikTok videos from out naval officer Joshua Kelley, who performs in drag as “Harpy Daniels.”
Kelley, who has previously performed as Harpy during events organized by the Navyās Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department, announced in 2022 they had been chosen as a “Digital Ambassador” by the Navy to help boost recruitment.Ā
By deploying clips of a prominent transgender woman and a drag queen, Trump’s implied message is that a military under a Democratic administration fosters an atmosphere where people are “weak and gay.”
“WE WILL NOT HAVE A WOKE MILITARY!” Trump wrote in a caption on X featuring the video clip.
āTrump has twisted and profoundly distorted Kubrickās powerful anti-war film into a perverse, homophobic, and manipulative tool of propaganda,ā the film’s star Matthew Modine told Entertainment Weekly.
Republicans have frequently claimed that the military, including leaders at the Department of Defense, are overly concerned with diversity and sensitivity training.Ā As a result, they claim, the military has degraded its readiness to go to war and become “soft,” with rank-and-file service members more concerned with political correctness and left-wing social activism than defending America from external threats.
Congressional Republicans have proposed amendments to Department of Defense funding bills seeking to make the Pentagon’s existing ban on drag performances on military bases more permanent.
Some Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have even called on the military to reinstate the ban on LGBTQ service members, claiming that their mere presence in the ranks is resulting in recruiting problems for all branches of the service.
DeSantis’s claim is based on stereotypes of conservative-leaning Americans so blinded by anti-LGBTQ hatred and so inflexible that they are allegedly incapable of serving alongside any service member who does not ascribe to their same worldview or come from the same background.
DeSantis is not the only person to employ the trope — much of right-wing social media frequently seeks to portray “real” military members — and by extension, Trump, should be become commander-in-chief — as hypermasculine “alpha males” who are ready to protect Americans at a moment’s notice.
That same view has also extended beyond the military, with Republicans frequently asserting that any male who votes for Democrats isn’t a “real man.”
Laura Loomer, the far-right influencer with close ties to President Donald Trump, claimed during a deposition in her defamation lawsuit against HBO that sources close to the former president told her U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is gay.
Loomer is suing the network over comments by comedian Bill Maher, host of Real Time with Bill Maher, who joked that she had an affair with Trump. She alleges Maher's on-air remark about her "sleeping with Trump" -- echoing a rumor circulating at the time -- cost her a job in the Trump administration and the political influence that would have come with it. HBO has argued that Maher's comment is protected under the First Amendment, just as Loomer's own inflammatory remarks are shielded when she targets her political enemies.
The U.S. Air Force has issued new guidance, in two memos signed by interim assistant secretary for manpower and reserve affairs Brian Scarlett, detailing how transgender Airmen and Guardians will be involuntarily separated -- and denying them any chance to contest the decision.
Citing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's memo announcing compliance with President Donald Trump's executive order seeking to ban transgender service members, an Aug. 12 memo states that any Airman or Guardian with a diagnosis, history, or symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria will be denied a waiver and involuntarily separated.
"I was really into politics at a very young age," says Tim Miller, host of The Bulwark Podcast and an MSNBC political analyst. "I can't remember what they were called, but you'd get those kid magazines about politics that would come to your school, and I remember always really being drawn to them, and reading them and wanting to know more. I always knew lots of weird facts about politics and geography as a little middle school nerd."
Raised in St. Louis until fourth grade, when his family relocated to Littleton, Colorado, Miller became enmeshed in conservative politics at a young age, taking various campaign jobs throughout his career as a former Republican strategist. He jokes that his success at handicapping political races dates back to the 1992 election, when he won a $1 wager after betting his grandmother that then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton would unseat sitting president George H.W. Bush.
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