May 4th is commonly commemorated as Star Wars Day, and Donald Trump was not about to miss it.
In a daring move, the Department of Defense released a 5-minute Star Wars-themed movie, highlighting recent victories and eliciting a galaxy of reactions.
A torrent of reactions.
While the Department of Defense’s Star Wars-themed brag reel garnered headlines, it was a different, eye-catching image that actually lit up the internet.
To commemorate Star Wars Day on May 4th, the White House released a computer-generated image of Donald Trump. In this over-the-top representation, Trump stands muscular and almost cartoonishly buff, wielding a lightsaber in front of two American flags and two bald eagles.
The accompanying caption 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.”
The image triggered a flurry of emotions, with many expressing surprise and astonishment that it was from the official White House account.
Others linked it to the type of over-the-top stuff sometimes seen on social media, with some joking that it appeared to have been constructed by an amateur using artificial intelligence.
The red lightsaber, however, was by far the most discussed feature in the White House’s May 4th Trump poster.
Anyone who is even vaguely familiar with Star Wars knows that the crimson lightsaber is synonymous with the Sith Lords, the evil opposites of the Jedi. George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, once said: “Good guys are green and blue, bad guys are red.”
Defending the red lightsaber.
One X user highlighted the obvious contradiction: “The lack of self-awareness and hypocrisy by calling the left ‘the empire’ while showing Trump with a Sith lightsaber.”
Some have attempted to justify the red lightsaber by noting that red is the color of the Republican Party.
“I just saw it last evening,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. He added that his wife, Melania Trump, thought it was cute.
Trump denied any involvement in creating the image of him dressed as the Pope, and said that anyone who was upset simply “can’t take a joke.”
