President Trump on Tuesday posted a bizarre video that features no voiceover or distinguishable narrative, but is partly aimed at his sworn enemies: Hillary Clinton, President Obama, CNN, and Hollywood.
The two-minute ad uses Hans Zimmer’s score for The Dark Knight Rises as a dramatic soundtrack to video footage—connected together by shoddily edited jump cuts—of Hillary and Bill Clinton, President Obama, hundred-dollar bills, the CNN logo, a slow-zoom on a Fox News.com headline, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) at the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, and Trump himself speaking at rallies and walking through the corridors of the White House.
“First they ignore you / Then they laugh at you / Then they call you racist,” reads a series of title cards interspersed between this seemingly random collection of images. At one point, without any context, footage of celebrities like Rosie O’Donnell (whom the president has repeatedly called a “pig”), Amy Schumer, and Bryan Cranston appear on-screen.
ADVERTISEMENT
During other moments, Trump is seen touching a grave at a memorial visit, shaking hands with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un during their failed Hanoi summit, welcoming Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, and touring a factory warehouse.
“Your Vote / Proved them all wrong / 2020,” the ad concludes, along with a campaign logo featuring the slogan “The Great Victory.”
A campaign official told The New York Times later Tuesday that the video was not created by the campaign. “We like to share content from diehard supporters, and this is just another example of how hard Trump supporters fight for us,” a campaign official told the newspaper. The president has previously publicized other multimedia from his fans, including Twitter user @CarpeDonktum and anonymous Reddit users.
Warner Brothers, for its part, wants the music from The Dark Knight Rises removed from the video.
“The use of Warner Bros.’ score from The Dark Knight Rises in the campaign video was unauthorized,” Paul McGuire, senior vice president of corporate communications at Warner Brothers, told The Daily Beast in a statement. “We are working through the appropriate legal channels to have it removed.”
