Former President Donald Trump posted a tweet on Saturday night that criticized the US military.
“WE WILL NOT HAVE A WOKE MILITARY!” he said in a caption. An accompanying video shows scenes from Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 movie, Full Metal Jacket. It includes a brutal drill instructor (played by the late Ronald Lee Ermey) shouting at new recruits during their basic training.
It then cuts to a video of Dr Rachel Levine, Assistant Secretary of Health, wishing people a “Happy Pride”. Dr Levine is a trans woman and an admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
Politics, but make it gay!
Stay woke with our briefing while staying informed on all things LGBTQ+ entertainment, life, and more!
WE WILL NOT HAVE A WOKE MILITARY! pic.twitter.com/zpWZhSKcEs
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2024
More scenes from Full Metal Jacket pop up, followed by a TikTok video of a serving member of the military metamorphising into a drag queen.
It ends with more scenes from Full Metal Jacket and the slogan ‘Let’s Make Our Military Great Again.’
Trump’s video has had over 200,000 likes in little over 24 hours. It also provoked 11,000 comments.
Predictably, many Trump devotees rushed to agree with their idol. This included X-owner Elon Musk.
“Absolutely,” tweeted Musk. “The military’s job is to defend America, not engage in social activism.”
Absolutely. The military’s job is to defend America, not engage in social activism.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 13, 2024
‘Full Metal Jacket’
Full Metal Jacket takes place during the Vietnam War. The first half of the movie follows a group of recruits struggling to deal with the harsh methods utilized by their drill instructor to get them into shape. One of them dies by suicide when he can take it no longer.
Many were quick to point out that Trump had probably never watched the movie. He also famously deferred service five times during the Vietnam War.
You never actually watched “Full Metal Jacket,” did you.
— Joe Catron (@jncatron) October 13, 2024
Trump wouldn’t have lasted one day in bootcamp.
— CB— (@ConservBlue2020) October 13, 2024
Captain Bone Spurs has some thoughts about the military.
— Chidi (@ChidiNwatu) October 13, 2024
The drag queen featured in the video is Harpy Daniels, who Queerty has covered before.
Back in 2018, several news outlets ran stories about Yeoman 1st Class Joshua Kelley, then 24. At the time, Kelley was based on the USS Ronald Reagan in Yokosuka, Japan. They performed as Harpy during events organized by the Navy’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department.
In November 2022, Kelley announced they’d been recruited as a “Digital Ambassador” by the Navy to help boost recruitment. Presumably, Navy superiors felt Kelley promotes the fact LGBTQ people are very welcome in today’s armed forces.
A handful of Digital Ambassadors were used. None were paid and no official marketing material was produced featuring them. They simply promoted themselves on their own social media and talked about being in the Navy. Harpy Daniels’ postings went without much notice at the time.
Then, last year, in the wake of the Dylan Mulvaney/Bud Light controversy, right-wing social media accounts stumbled across Harpy Daniels and slammed the Navy for going “woke”.
“I have the watch”
Queerty reached out to Kelley, currently stationed in Spain, for comment on Donald Trump’s video.
“Anyone who volunteers to serve their country should never have to be slandered or ostracized just because they choose to live their life authentically,” Kelley said.
“If anyone chooses to hate me for serving my country and living my life authentically, I simply will say you’re welcome, and I have the watch.”
That’s military-speak for saying they’re on duty and watching over you.
“Thank you for the support from the military, LGBTQ+ community, and my family,” Kelley added. “Queer people have always served, and we’re not going anywhere. Be proud of who you are because in life, haters only hate when you are winning.”
Trump’s history of criticizing members of the military
This is not the first time Donald Trump has appeared to mock members of the US military.
Back in 2015, speaking about then-Arizona Sen. John McCain’s service in Vietnam, Trump said: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
In 2020, The Atlantic reported on Trump calling fallen soldiers “losers” and “suckers”. Trump has always denied ever saying this. His former chief of staff, John Kelly, says the report was true.
Earlier this month, Trump downplayed injuries suffered by US military service people during a raid on the Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq in 2020. He first said there were no injuries. When this was corrected by the Pentagon, Trump said at a press conference the injuries were “not very serious … I heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things.”
In fact, eight military personnel experienced concussion and three later sought behavioral health treatment for psychological symptoms.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars association called upon Trump to apologize for downplaying the injuries. He has not done so.
Whilst in office, Trump introduced a ban on trans people serving in the military. The Biden administration repealed the ban in 2021.
Related*
US Navy’s drag sweetheart Harpy Daniels has a message for critics: “Haters only hate when we’re winning!”
“You don’t scare me and you won’t stop the LGBTQ+ community.”
Matt Gaetz makes a late bid to be biggest Pride Month douchebag
…and he may just scoop it.
Sign up for the Queerty newsletter to stay on top of the hottest stories in LGBTQ+ entertainment, politics, and culture.
War On Free Speech
Vivian Kubrick, daughter of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, weighs in on President Trump’s use of footage from ‘Full Metal Jacket’ in his latest video.
Ms. Kubrick writes, in part,…
“And if that footage from FMJ helps Trump make the point that the US military needs properly trained, super tough, focused, dedicated warriors, and not introduce the demoralizing effects of woke-ism, and attracting people to join up simply to have their sexual reassignments paid for, then Trump has my blessing.”
eclecticstarz
Here is another quote from the scientologist Vivian “I’ve been listening to Alex Jones for many years. I know how accurate he has been about what’s going down on this planet”
abfab
Yes…like War On she is a complete and total wacko:
One frequent target of hers are the “Globalists,” a vague Hitlerian epithet commonly employed by the far right as an anti-Semitic slur. According to Kubrick, the COVID-19 virus that researchers at Johns Hopkins University of Medicine say has infected more than 100 million people worldwide is actually a hoax perpetrated on our civilization by “Globalists” like Susan Wojcicki and Bill Gates in collaboration with both the “New World Order” and major transnational corporations in an effort to “destroy world economies” and take “total control over every human beings [sic] lives.” Masks, she argues, are vectors for Globalist mind control, and she also has compared the distribution of the vaccine to Nazi sterilization experiments on Jews.
War On Free Speech
Don’t Let Trump Cheat!!!
DEMAND:
Voter ID & Proof of Citizenship
A Paper Ballot
In-person Voting
Same Day Results
Eternal.Cowboy
Thanks for acknowledging that Trump plans to cheat!
Cam
What a surprise, anytime there is an article on Trump the same old right wing troll account that continually switches names on here comes on and panic tweets out.
War On Free Speech
Hi Cam!
I see that you are another diversity lover.
Eternal.Cowboy
I remember when Republicans supported and advocated for the people that volunteered to serve our country rather than denigrate them.