Bill Pullman, star of stage, screen, and television, was a trending topic on Twitter Saturday, but not, unfortunately, because of chatter about his current USA Network series The Sinner, or that Mel Brooks fans were discussing their love of Spaceballs, or even theater mavens reminiscing about the 2002 Broadway production of Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? It was because of Donald Trump sharing memes.
A few hours after taunt-tweeting at Laurence O’Donnell, suggesting the MSNBC anchor cried when forced to admit that, yes, the President made a lot of money on The Apprentice (a dubious claim that has been debunked before), but a few hours before he retweeted a pic of new Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany done up like Supergirl, Trump shared a “deep fake” video in which his own head was superimposed on Pullman’s as he gave the St. Crispin’s Day-esque speech from the Roland Emmerich’s 1996 film Independence Day.
This is one of those things you need to see to believe, if only for the cut-aways to Sean Hannity and Sen. Ted Cruz.
The White House itself did not create this video. It appears to be the work of the “@mad_liberals” Twitter account, one of Trump’s recently applauded “keyboard warriors.” However, the fact that the video is embedded within Trump’s tweet, and not a simple retweet or quote tweet, means that somebody (not likely Trump) took a moment to monkey with the code before blasting it to 80 million followers.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Pullman, who reprised the role of President Thomas J. Whitmore in the 2016 sequel Independence Day: Resurgence. The actor said “My voice belongs to no one but me, and I’m not running for president — this year.”
None of this is Independence Day‘s fault. To erase Trump’s appropriation, here’s the part with Jeff Goldblum and Harvey Fierstein.