Hannibal Lecter is a cannibalistic serial killer, a lover of fava beans and a nice chianti, fictional \u2014 and now, a regular feature in Donald Trump\u2019s speeches.<\/p>\n
As the Republican presidential nominee riffed on immigration and the border at an Aug. 3 rally in Atlanta, he declared: \u201cThey hate when I use Dr. Hannibal Lecter. The late, great Hannibal Lecter,\u201d an apparent reference to the media.<\/p>\n
During his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last month, he asked: \u201cHas anyone seen \u2018The Silence of the Lambs\u2019? The late, great Hannibal Lecter. He\u2019d love to have you for dinner. That\u2019s insane asylums. They\u2019re emptying out their insane asylums.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Wildwood, N.J., on May 11, he told the crowd: \u201cThe late, great Hannibal Lecter. He\u2019s a wonderful man. \u2026 Remember the last scene?\u201d Trump went on to say: \u201cWe have people that are being released into our country that we don\u2019t want in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s references to Lecter are at once consistent and nonsensical. He typically mentions the fictional serial killer in the context of immigration, claiming without evidence that migrants are coming in from insane asylums and mental institutions and often using dehumanizing language.<\/p>\n
Around 1 percent of those arrested at the southern border have criminal convictions, federal data shows. There is little evidence that undocumented immigrants commit more crime than U.S. citizens do. Many migrants who cross the U.S. border seek political asylum here, but that term has nothing to do with mental illness. Trump has also spoken about Lecter before reading \u201cThe Snake,\u201d a poem that he has used to convey an anti-immigrant message at his rallies and public events for years.<\/p>\n
Yet the references to Lecter reveal something else about Trump: the era in which he rose to fame and his previous time as a celebrity. A Trump rally is a sort of time capsule, a frozen-in-amber moment from an earlier era \u2014 the 1980s \u2014 when Trump ruled the New York City clubs and tabloids and first graced the cover of Time magazine.<\/p>\n
His self-curated rally playlists include hits like \u201cY.M.C.A.\u201d (1978) and \u201cGloria\u201d (1982). The fit of his suits and the length of his ties scream 1980s. He still has a penchant for gilded interior design. Trump Tower was completed in 1983.<\/p>\n
Trump is the \u201ccrypt keeper for the 1980s,\u201d which was \u201cthe high point of his life until he became president,\u201d said Tim O\u2019Brien, a Trump biographer who has criticized the former president.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time he opens the door, people spill out from the 1980s, whether it\u2019s Roger Stone or Rudy Giuliani, fashion from the \u201980s spills out, whether it\u2019s his monochrome tie or suits that invariably are made in two or three different colors \u2026 his office decor is still in the 1980s,\u201d he said. \u201cNone of his tastes have been updated in decades.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s Hannibal Lecter obsession fits perfectly in this mold. Thomas Harris\u2019s novel \u201cThe Silence of the Lambs,\u201d which the film is based on, hit bookstore shelves around the same time as Trump\u2019s 1987 book, \u201cTrump: The Art of the Deal.\u201d (The New York Times had the two books side by side on its paperback bestseller list in mid-1989.) The movie, which starred Jodie Foster as FBI cadet Clarice Starling and Anthony Hopkins as Lecter, came out in 1991 and became the first and only horror film to win the Academy Award for best picture.<\/p>\n
A decade later, Trump attended the 2001 New York premiere of \u201cHannibal,\u201d the sequel to \u201cThe Silence of the Lambs.\u201d He arrived at the premiere with future wife Melania Trump, then Melania Knauss, according to a USA Today story. The story noted that the movie studio at the time was concerned about how women would react to the gore. Melania said she had \u201cno problems\u201d and didn\u2019t close her eyes. Trump replied: \u201cI did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump began working \u201cThe Silence of the Lambs\u201d into speeches in March 2023. He mentioned the movie in an address at the Conservative Political Action Conference then, according to a Washington Post analysis of his speeches this cycle. Lecter himself did not make an appearance until an October rally in Waterloo, Iowa. In 70 speeches tracked by The Post between his campaign kickoff in November 2022 and Aug. 12, Trump has mentioned Lecter or the film \u201cThe Silence of the Lambs\u201d in 20 of them. (Trump appeared to recognize the references to Lecter may be outdated, musing at a rally in Sioux City that \u201cyoung people\u201d hadn\u2019t heard of him.)<\/p>\n
The Lecter mentions are a way for Trump to continue \u201cupping the ante\u201d from his previous descriptions of migrants, said Gwenda Blair, another Trump biographer. It\u2019s \u201cnot just criminals, rapists, which Trump has already used starting in 2015 \u2026 but let\u2019s get cannibal in the mix.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump \u201cis somebody who understands images and branding, and Hannibal Lecter is a well-established brand of absolutely indescribable horror,\u201d Blair added.<\/p>\n
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who is running for Senate, thinks there\u2019s a simple explanation. \u201cIt was a great movie,\u201d Banks said. \u201cWidely recognized as one of the best movies of all time. And I think he enjoys that liberals get bent out of shape about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several people close to the Trump campaign said they did not know the backstory for Trump\u2019s fixation on Lecter and had never asked. His speeches also seem to have perplexed Hopkins, the Welsh actor who won an Oscar for playing Lecter. In an interview with Deadline, Hopkins observed: \u201cHannibal, that\u2019s a long time ago, that movie. God, that was over 30 years ago. I\u2019m shocked and appalled what you\u2019ve told me about Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n
In interviews at Trump\u2019s rally in Atlanta, voters offered different interpretations.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst time I heard it, I was like, \u2018What?\u2019 But after I heard it a couple of times, it was like, \u2018Oh I get the connection now,\u2019\u201d said Jim Scandle, 72. \u201cHe\u2019s trying to make the point that a lot of these people that are coming illegally in this country are from mental institutions, just like Hannibal Lecter. And so you know, it has nothing to do with Hannibal Lecter except the fact that he was in a mental institution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bert Sandler, 66, laughed when asked about \u201cThe Silence of the Lambs.\u201d (Sandler hasn\u2019t seen the movie in \u201cprobably\u201d six years but exclaimed, \u201cWith fava beans!\u201d as he reflected on Trump\u2019s comments.)<\/p>\n
He had a more philosophical interpretation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s just speaking about where the world is today,\u201d Sandler said. \u201cI think that\u2019s where we are, the divisiveness, I think he\u2019s just trying to portray a character that\u2019s pretty divisive and needed a lot of help, and I think America needs a lot of help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Debbie Courtney offered a shorter take: \u201cI just think evil.\u201d She added: \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s talking about somebody eating somebody for dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump campaign did not offer further clarification about the former president\u2019s penchant for mentioning Lecter or volunteer his personal positions on fava beans and chianti. Instead, Steven Cheung replied in a statement: \u201cPresident Trump is an inspiring and gifted storyteller and referencing pop culture is one of many reasons why he can successfully connect with the audience and voters. Whereas, [Vice President Kamala Harris] is as relatable as a worn-out couch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Hannibal Lecter is a cannibalistic serial killer, a lover of fava beans and a nice chianti, fictional \u2014 and now, a regular feature in Donald Trump\u2019s speeches. As the Republican presidential nominee riffed on immigration and the border at an Aug. 3 rally in Atlanta, he declared: \u201cThey hate when I use Dr. Hannibal Lecter. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}