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”.

  • @Kiernian
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    1 month ago

    Yeah, I just looked up the quote. Why in the actual fuck the journalist asked him this is beyond me, but here we have it:

    What do you think of Donald Trump?

    I have no idea, I’ve never met him. He’s obviously not the classic politician, that’s for sure. I can definitely laugh at some of the stuff he says but I can also go, “Oh my God, did he say that?” I think he’s a fresh wind for some people, but that’s what you’re voting for, I guess, right? It’s a big job.

    As answers go, it’s pretty non-commital I suppose but not encouraging.