# 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:** 5
**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 29, 2024, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/81 "2024-07-29T17:42:38Z")
He better not! 😡 ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2024, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/82 "2024-07-29T18:22:21Z")
> [@solost](#): > > about the unnamed guy he’s talking to in the anecdote I THINK that a bit earlier he was talking about a boat manufacturer in one of the Carolinas. Who, of course, was bemoaning the fact that ‘they’ were going to make him manufacture nothing but battery-operated boats. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2024, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/83 "2024-07-29T19:06:55Z")
LOL 3x! ---
**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 29, 2024, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/84 "2024-07-29T21:18:04Z")
> [@solost](#): > > It’s only a minute and a half, but if you don’t want to watch the video, the theory is that trump is conflating the two meanings of asylum: one of which is immigrants seeking asylum, and the other being insane asylums, and trump keeps claiming that other countries are emptying out theirs to send the patients to the U.S. And in trump’s weird word salad associations, what well-known fictional character escaped from an insane asylum? Why, Hannibal Lector, of course. That still doesn’t explain why he thinks Hannibal Lecter went on TV and said “I love Donald Trump”. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2024, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/85 "2024-07-29T21:44:08Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > That still doesn’t explain why he thinks Hannibal Lecter went on TV and said “I love Donald Trump”. I don’t claim to know how his crazy mind works. He has a list of ‘facts’ that have been proven to never have happened, yet he still loves to trot out over and over. He’s also claimed several times that he received a ‘Man of the Year’ award from my home state of Michigan, an achievement he’s very proud of, yet it’s an event that never happened and an award that doesn’t exist. Where do these notions come from? Does he know they’re not true, or does he actually believe they happened? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2024, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/86 "2024-07-30T00:14:28Z")
I think he is used to making things up his employees pretend to believe in hopes of a raise. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/87 "2024-08-02T04:30:27Z")
Seriously, I’m going to drag out an old story I like to tell because it says so much about Trump. It’s from the “Celebrity Apprentice” days, when I got sucked in to watching by the celebrities. One sponsor for the competition was promoting their new hair dryer that was the first hair dryer to have a touch-screen control. (Because that’s what a hair dryer needs.) So that prompts Trump to make some self-serving comment about his own hair and that it looks pretty good, what do you think? And the camera pans to the line of celebrities standing there dumbfounded, especially Meatloaf. They were all visibly floundering at Trump’s rudiculous remark and the need to stay in his good graces. And amazingly none of these celebs was craven enough to pull off a bold-faced lie and agree with the orangu-tan. It’s such a striking image it’s stuck with me for over a decade. What’s really a brain squeezer is trying to think on Trump’s motive. Conventional wisdom is that he is too vain and too self-clueless (opposite of self- aware) to be anything but sincere in his self-adulation, and throwing a softball up for the contestants to compete for praising him. But there’s a sneaky little portion in the back of my brain saying, “Oh he knows his hair looks like ass. That’s and the portrait he commissioned (with charity funds) had a different hairstyle. So he’s trolling the contestants with a fish for agreement and compliments to see how well they lie.” Or something. But back to reality, I think he really is that clueless about his hair and that vain that he would fish for compliments from a captured audience that can’t afford to ~~be honest~~ insult him. And the painting is the artist trying to placate him with what he thinks his hair is like, or at least satisfy Trump when he complained at how silly he looked. And that is what it says to me about his personality. He expects people to slavishly admire everything he says and laud him with compliments. And he’s thoroughly accustomed to using his power to force others to yield to his “superiority”, to fawn and kowtow to his every utterance. It’s a power play, and he knows it and does it deliberately. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/88 "2024-08-04T16:13:35Z")
How I wish Hopkins would do something, assuming he’s not a MAGAt. ---
**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:** [August 4, 2024, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/89 "2024-08-04T18:06:45Z")
I think you missed the discussion of Hopkins we had in this thread. I’ll repeat the link I gave earlier: > **[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... He’s neither a “MAGAt” nor will he “do something”. Those aren’t the only two possibilities. ---
**Author:** ![anny\_m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@anny\_m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anny_m)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/90 "2024-08-04T19:59:17Z")
I think it would be funny if Thomas Harris declared that Hannibal Lecter despises Trump. It would be even funnier if Trump assumes that Thomas is somehow related to Kamala. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/91 "2024-08-04T20:07:34Z")
The deaths of the people killed by a Hitler…those are pretty permanent. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/92 "2024-08-04T20:30:19Z")
He persists in using the “late great” description. So if he wants to make America great again, does that mean we should all emulate the late great Hannibal Lector? I wish someone would ask him what about Lector he considers so great. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/93 "2024-08-04T22:13:56Z")
I wonder why he considers him to be dead. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/94 "2024-08-04T22:28:14Z")
Perhaps he thinks fictional and dead are synonymous? ---
**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:** [August 4, 2024, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/95 "2024-08-04T22:32:22Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I wonder why he considers him to be dead I don’t think he understands what “late” means. He thinks it means “longtime” or something similar. That means we can call him “the late donald trump”. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2024, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/96 "2024-08-04T23:01:47Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > That means we can call him “the late donald trump”. I mean, doesn’t he usually show up at least an hour late to most of his rallies? He’s _usually_ the late Donald Trump. _(And he hasn’t had a period in many months at least. Very late.)_ ---
**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:** [August 5, 2024, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/97 "2024-08-05T00:01:40Z")
“Come along, or you’ll be late.” “Late for what?” “What’s your name, Earthman?” “Trump. Donald Trump.” “Then you’ll be late as in the late Trump Donald Trump. It’s supposed to be a threat, you see. Never was very good at them.” ---
**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:** [August 5, 2024, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/98 "2024-08-05T00:09:17Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Perhaps he thinks fictional and dead are synonymous? They don’t make those movies anymore, so maybe he seems dead? I think he just likes saying “late great”… ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2024, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/99 "2024-08-05T00:51:06Z")
It would be hilarious if Jodie Foster made a surprise appearance at a rally. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2024, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762/100 "2024-08-05T00:53:14Z")
Maybe he was just confused by the title of [that one Townes Van Zandt album](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Late_Great_Townes_Van_Zandt). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-and-hannibal-lecter-whats-up-with-this/1004762.md?page=6)