With the election not two weeks away (yikes), Trump has released another campaign ad hoping to scrounge up extra votes. The ad, published October 12, pits his strong man ideals against “Comrade Kamala’s” drag laden army. It continues his anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. The ad’s use of Full Metal Jacket clips demonstrates Trump does not understand the point of the movie, like many internet film bros.
Trump posted the campaign ad to X, formerly Twitter, in all its 540p glory. The video suggests that under a Trump presidency, culture within the military will be as hard-ass and abrasive as Drill Sergeant Hartman from Full Metal Jacket. Conversely, under a Harris presidency, the military will be “soft” and “limp-wristed.” The ad uses TikToks of actual queer military personnel dressing in drag, complete with pop hits. It ends with the slogan “Let’s make our military great again” atop fictional recruits running in the rain.
The campaign ad is troubling on multiple levels. The video itself comes off as a meme without endorsements or credits typical of TV ads. This meme format makes LGBTQ+ military personnel the punchline of a dark joke. TikToks featuring enlisted drag queens still display their watermarks. This makes them easy targets for harassment should Trump’s base decide to look up their handles. Regardless of one’s stance on the military, these individuals do not deserve harassment on the basis of sexual orientation.
The video also features Dr. Rachel Levine, a trans woman and the Assistant Secretary for Health for the HHS. She is also an admiral for the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. The Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is notably not a branch of the Department of Defense. The Corps is comprised only of noncombatants.
This follows proposed and passed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation targeting military personnel proposed Trump and his supporters. In 2017, Trump issued an executive order banning transgender individuals from serving in the military. This was reversed by the Biden administration in 2021. However, republican senators have tried to reenact the Trump era policy.
Furthermore, Trump does not seem to understand that Full Metal Jacket is an anti-war film. The Kubrick film shows how military training breaks the human will and turns recruits into killers without morals. Hartman, the fictional man glorified in the ad, is even killed in a murder-suicide by one of the recruits as a demonstration of how the military dehumanizes its personnel. Unfortunately, this is likely the type of military Trump would want. This ad raises the alarm for a U.S. Military even more antagonistic and unresponsive to its recruits, veterans, and those across enemy lines.
Photo courtesy of Full Metal Jacket, dir. by Stanley Kubrick
