# Donald Trump and Hannibal Lecter. What's up with this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** movies, trump\ **Created:** [July 25, 2024, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762 "2024-07-25T04:10:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/1 "2024-07-25T04:10:58Z")
Trump keeps mentioning the “late great” Hannibal Lector. The serial killer featured in Silence of the Lambs and other books and movies. He always emphasizes the joke from the end of the movie where Lector says, “I’m having an old friend for dinner…” 1. How does this relate to anything Trump could be talking about? 2. Is “having someone for dinner” the only joke Trump gets? Is he mixing up people seeking asylum with insane asylums? I don’t get it. What’s up with this? ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/2 "2024-07-25T04:27:43Z")
I think it’s a play on Venezuela emptying their prisons and insane asylums and sending them here, something which isn’t happening. So Trump is combining something he made up with an apocalyptic image. The shtick doesn’t really work, but Trump isn’t as finely tuned a demagogue as he used to be. Articles: > **[What is it with Donald Trump’s obsession with Hannibal Lecter?](https://www.euronews.com/culture/2024/07/19/what-is-it-with-donald-trumps-obsession-with-hannibal-lecter)** > > The lambs have not yet stopped screaming for Donald Trump. > Nor has the screaming in our heads as we try to understand what’s behind the Republican nominee’s fixation with Hannibal Lecter – who he keeps namechecking during his speeches. > Anthony... Anthony Hopkins: “Hannibal, that’s a long time ago that movie. God, that was over 30 years ago.” [https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4778013-trump-hannibal-lecter-anthony-hopkins/](https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4778013-trump-hannibal-lecter-anthony-hopkins/) Others think that Trump is indeed mixing up political asylum with insane asylums. Who knows? > **[Critics point to "missing link" in Donald Trump's Hannibal Lecter remarks](https://www.newsweek.com/critics-george-conway-point-missing-link-donald-trump-hannibal-lecter-remarks-1927997)** > > At a rally in New Jersey in May, the former president called "The Silence of the Lambs" character a "wonderful man." ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/3 "2024-07-25T04:31:09Z")
He’s crazy in the head mostly. Makes about as much sense as sharks and boat batteries, med beds, injecting bleach and his sexual prowess. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/4 "2024-07-25T04:36:18Z")
Uh, I feel like if Joe Biden had gone on about Hannibal Lector, we would have been talking full-blown resignation, not just stepping down from re-election. Does Trump think Hannibal Lector was real? And, somehow, not a villain? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/5 "2024-07-25T04:44:21Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Does Trump think Hannibal Lector was real? Specifically, he believes Hannibal Lecter has endorsed him on TV. > ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/6 "2024-07-25T04:55:38Z")
I think he thinks Anthony Hopkins once endorsed him years ago. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/7 "2024-07-25T04:59:04Z")
It’s the only joke he knows. He also thinks that other countries have asylums full of real-life Hannibal Lecters who are being sent to the US where they simply walk across the border unopposed so they can start causing all kinds of chaos. Trump may have heard some rumors about the Mariel boatlift, in which Cuba may have unburdened itself of various individuals considered undesirable: > **[Mariel boatlift](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariel_boatlift)** > > The Mariel boatlift (Spanish: éxodo del Mariel) was a mass emigration of Cubans who traveled from Cuba's Mariel Harbor to the United States between April 15 and October 31, 1980. The term "Marielito" is used to refer to these refugees in both Spanish and English. While the exodus was triggered by a sharp downturn in the Cuban economy, it followed on the heels of generations of Cubans who had immigrated to the United States in the preceding decades. > After 10,000 Cubans tried to gain asylum by t... (Locally I have seen variations of this story as well. Alberta is sending all of their criminals/crazy people to BC or homeless people in Vancouver are being given one-way tickets to Vancouver Island or etc.) ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/8 "2024-07-25T05:10:26Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I don’t get it. What’s up with this? He’s an absolute moron and dumbshit. Full stop. There is no trying to interpret this. However, a good portion of the nation believes these are somehow words from god. They are also morons and dumbshits. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/9 "2024-07-25T05:14:08Z")
Hopkins is very careful to stay out of politics and has been unambiguous about this. > **[Anthony Hopkins Avoids Talking Politics: ‘Actors Are Pretty Stupid’](https://www.dailywire.com/news/anthony-hopkins-avoids-talking-politics-actors-are-pretty-stupid)** > > Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins (“Silence of the Lambs”) has no desire to share his politics, conceding that actors are “pretty stupid.” Speaking with Brad Pitt for Interview Magazine, Hopkins said he often declines the opportunity to share his... And Brian Cox, who has also played Lecter (in _Manhunter_) can’t stand Trump. > **[Brian Cox Thinks Donald Trump Would Be a Dull Role to Play: ‘He’s So Full of...](https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/brian-cox-donald-trump-dull-role-1234828820/)** > > "Succession" star Brian Cox on why he'd never want to play Donald Trump. Mads Mikkelsen, who played Hannibal in the eponymous TV series, doesn’t seem like any kind of Trump supporter either, but this is maybe the closest thing to praise you might find from anyone known for playing that role. > **["Doctor Strange" and "Hannibal" star Mads Mikkelsen calls the presidential...](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/doctor-strange-and-hannibal-star-mads-mikkelsen-calls-the-presidential-election-scary/)** > > Mads Mikkelsen has a busy autumn, between playing the villain in "Doctor Strange" and working on the Death Star in "Rogue One" > **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. The italicization above was mine to emphasize what one might see as praise if you take it in the most favorable way possible, but I think he was just trying to give as diplomatic an answer as he could. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/10 "2024-07-25T05:25:58Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Hopkins is very careful to stay out of politics and has been unambiguous about this. I didn’t say Trump was right, just that he seems to believe it. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/11 "2024-07-25T05:27:07Z")
So I think what he was originally going for was something along the lines of, “There are people worse than Hannibal Lecter crossing the border,” but he gets distracted and rambles about how great Hannibal Lecter is, and he never gets to the point, which he just undermined, of actually saying that the people coming in are worse than Hannibal Lecter. Also, the ‘late’ Hannibal Lecter did not die in any book, movie, or television show in which he was a character, and all the actors who played him are still alive. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/12 "2024-07-25T06:35:21Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > I didn’t say Trump was right, just that he seems to believe it. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise, I just wanted to show evidence that Trump is (as usual) spouting nonsense, rather than everyone just assuming he was. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/13 "2024-07-25T06:51:33Z")
Isn’t Hopkins from the UK? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/14 "2024-07-25T07:47:41Z")
He’s Welsh, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/15 "2024-07-25T07:54:54Z")
Brian Cox is likewise British (from Scotland). And Mads is Danish. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/16 "2024-07-25T08:16:00Z")
In summary: TFG thinks Hannibal Lector was an actor, not a character portrayed by an actor, and once said he loved TFG. Side note: the first time I ‘saw’ _Manhunter_ it really freaked me out. I’d dozed off watching cable TV and was in a semi-awake semi-asleep state for a while with the dialogue working its way into my dreams giving me the most uncanny feeling that I knew what the next line was going to be before it was said. Fully waking up just made it even more eerie, [_Red Dragon_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dragon_(2002_film)) was one of my favorite movies at the time. I’d had no idea that Micheal Mann of all people had made a movie based on the book back in the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/17 "2024-07-25T08:21:41Z")
> [@Dissonance](#): > > [_Red Dragon_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dragon_(2002_film)) was one of my favorite movies at the time. IMO it’s the best of the Anthony Hopkins Hannibal movies, and Ed Norton is great in it. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/18 "2024-07-25T09:10:12Z")
I still don’t get the “late great” part. You would think someone would have mentioned to him that Hannibal Lector was neither late nor great but he probably refused to listen. He keeps repeating it, maybe because he likes the rhyme? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/19 "2024-07-25T09:16:07Z")
In one of the other threads, someone suggested that he might not know what “the late great” means, and thinks it’s a synonym for “famous” instead of “renowned dead”. That strikes me as plausible, because in my experience he seems to have trouble with words that have more than one meaning, and so he possibly doesn’t understand that “late” can mean both “tardy” and “deceased”. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/20 "2024-07-25T11:44:29Z")
I think he heard the “had a friend for dinner” part and understood the joke, for maybe the first time in his life. He told it to someone else and they chuckled. He was so proud of his success at being a normal human that he threw it into a rally speech. When all the Democrats said, WTF?, that cemented its status as something he should continue to do. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762.md?page=2)