Donald Trump dares to compare himself to President Bill Pullman from Independence Day
America has had a handful of great presidents, a few dozen mediocre seat-warmers, and let’s say three to five true motherfucking disasters, but only one president who managed to unite the entire planet against an alien menace and put his own damn butt in a fighter jet so he could personally rip them a new… tentacle hole. We are referring, of course, to Thomas J. Whitmore, better known as President Bill Pullman from Independence Day. He was a great character who made a rousing speech that brought everyone together under a distinctly U.S.-centric rallying cry, speaking to both American exceptionalism and our nation’s supposed passion for helping the less fortunate (that bit hasn’t aged well).
This weekend, despite the fact that he’s never done anything half as good as what a fictional man did in a decades-old sci-fi movie, Donald Trump shared a video on Twitter of Pullman’s big Independence Day speech but with his own face edited in. The implication is that Trump is a cool action president like Pullman, even though the guy in the movie risked his life to personally fight a global crisis and the guy in real life is sharing stupid memes on Twitter while people die from a virus.
But whatever. It’s dumb, he’s dumb. The story here is that The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Pullman to get his thoughts, and he actually offered up a response to Trump’s absurd assertion. Unfortunately, Pullman’s response isn’t as exciting or eloquent as what President Whitmore said in the movie, saying simply, “My voice belongs to no one but me, and I’m not running for president—this year.” All right, Bill. That’s fine, it’s just a little disappointing. Maybe it’s our fault for expecting something more dramatic? The dumb thing is below if you want to see it, but we wouldn’t blame you for getting as far away from this tweet as you can.