Donald Trump’s Curious Invocation of ‘The Late, Great Hannibal Lecter’ in Political Discourse

Donald on the ‘The Great Hannibal Lecter’: The former US President and current candidate Donald Trump has chosen a bizarre way to address the threat of unchecked immigration in his political campaign. During his speech, Trump referred to The Silence of the Lambs and its character Hannibal Lecter to draw a parallel between the film’s infamous cannibalistic character and immigrants living in the country. 

Trump is a “quasi-Hollywood politician” whose references are often related to the Hollywood industry. In fact, the reason could be his previous association with the film world, as he has starred in movies and TV shows, talking to Howard Stern, tweeting about Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, and dancing with Jeffrey Epstein at clubs with young party animals. In his most recent rally, filmed in Wildwood, New Jersey, Trump incorporated Hannibal Lecter yet again. He said

Silence of the Lambs! Has anyone ever seen The Silence of the Lambs? The late, great Hannibal Lecter! He’s a wonderful man. He oftentimes would have a friend over for dinner. Remember the last scene? ‘Excuse me, I’m about to have a friend for dinner,’ as this poor doctor walked by. ‘I’m about to have a friend for dinner.’ But Hannibal Lecter. Congratulations, the late, great Hannibal Lecter.

The 1991 released film is indeed a timeless film. However, it’s unclear why Donald Trump refers to Hannibal Lecter as “the late, great,” considering the character didn’t die in The Silence of the Lambs or any film. It’s also unclear what he thinks is “great” about Lecter, though Trump is likely using language in a less literal and definitional way than most people do. 

Does Donald Trump’s association with ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ in his speech make sense?

Political campaigns are a means of understanding what candidates have to offer the country and their perspectives on it. Speeches provide insight into leaders’ motives and aspirations. Since Donald Trump is a candidate for the US Presidential elections, let’s dive deeper into his perception via his speech. 

The former President incorporated Hannibal Lecter into the idea of people from so-called ‘insane asylums’ becoming immigrants into the United States. What comes as a paradox to his speech is the fact that there is no evidence of any country engaging in maliciously conscious behavior of releasing certain inmates and sending them specifically to the United States for immigration, for whatever reason. 

Moving to Trump’s speech, which begins at about the 34-minute point, he said, 

“The biggest thing we have is — we have millions of people here that are criminals. We really, I think they’re criminals. Think of it: Venezuela just announced that they had a new number, 67, now it’s 72%. 72% they’re down in crime because they took their gangs, the gang members, they took a lot of their criminals, and they moved them into the United States of America.” 

He continued, “Jail populations all over the world are way down. And these fools back there, the press, the fake news, they don’t want to report it. Do you know why they’re down? Because they’re sending people in their jails into the United States, from Africa, from Asia, from all over the world. They’re emptying out their jails into the United States. They’re emptying out their mental institutions into the United States, our beautiful country, and now, the prison populations all over the world are down. They don’t want to report that. The mental institution population is down because they’re taking people from insane asylums and from mental institutions. You know what the difference is, right? An insane asylum is a mental institution on steroids.

“Silence of the Lambs!” exclaimed Trump suddenly. “Has anyone ever seen The Silence of the Lambs? The late, great Hannibal Lecter! He’s a wonderful man. He oftentimes would have a friend over for dinner. Remember the last scene? ‘Excuse me, I’m about to have a friend for dinner,’ said this poor doctor as he walked by. ‘I’m about to have a friend for dinner.’ But Hannibal Lecter. Congratulations, the late, great Hannibal Lecter.”

Trump continued:

“We have people who have been released into our country who we don’t want in our country, and they’re coming in totally unchecked, totally unvetted. And we can’t let this happen. They’re destroying our country. And we’re sitting back, and we’ve let it happen. But we’ll win this election because, if we don’t, our country is going to be doomed.”

As of now, Trump’s concern seems vague as, so far, there has been no news about any cannibals entering the country from nearby regions.