On May 6, Mark Hamill posted an image on Bluesky depicting President Donald Trump lying dead in the dirt beneath a gravestone reading “DONALD J. TRUMP 1946–2024.” The caption read: “If Only.”
He expanded on the post in text: “If Only. He should live long enough to witness his inevitable devastating loss in the midterms, be held accountable for his unprecedented corruption, impeached, convicted & humiliated for his countless crimes. Long enough to realize he’ll be disgraced in the history books, forevermore. #don_TheCON.”
This post went up days after Cole Allen was charged following a shooting outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where prosecutors allege Trump was his intended target. It went up days after the Justice Department announced charges against Dean DelleChiaie, an FAA employee who prosecutors say used a government computer to research how to smuggle a firearm into a federal facility, with Trump as the target. Trump has now survived three assassination attempts since 2024. Thomas Matthew Crooks shot him at a Pennsylvania campaign rally, killing attendee Corey Comperatore. Ryan Routh was found armed near Trump’s Florida golf course. Cole Allen opened fire at the WHCA Dinner.
Hamill knows all of this. He also posted on Bluesky questioning whether the WHCA shooting was a hoax.
This is not Hamill’s first time in this territory. Fandom Pulse previously covered his announcement that he would join anti-Trump protests, positioning one of the most recognizable faces in science fiction entertainment squarely in the resistance politics that have come to define Hollywood’s public posture toward the current administration.
Hamill is not alone in this from the geek world. Fandom Pulse reported last week that Wilson Cruz, who played Dr. Hugh Culber across five seasons of Star Trek: Discovery, posted two statements on Facebook that together constitute the most explicit calls for the President’s death from anyone in the Star Trek cast to date. Cruz shared former FBI Director James Comey’s now-notorious “86 47” post, 86 being slang for killing someone, 47 being Trump’s presidential number, alongside his own statements targeting Trump. The Discovery cast had previously begged conservative fans to save their show when it faced cancellation. Those fans did not save it.
The pattern in Hollywood is consistent. Kimmel called Melania Trump “an expectant widow” on April 23, two days before the WHCA Dinner shooting. He said it on his ABC show in a mock roast segment: “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.” Melania called it “hateful and violent” and labeled Kimmel a “coward.” Trump called for him to be fired by Disney and ABC. ABC executives viewed the joke as “reckless” internally per a Yahoo Entertainment source, and the decision to double down made it “potentially costly to the network.” ABC is now reportedly preparing to pull the plug on Kimmel entirely.
Kimmel defended himself by saying it was “not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination.” That defense landed poorly given the timing. A reasonable person can debate whether the joke was a death wish or an age joke. What is not debatable is that Kimmel’s own network found it reckless, Melania called it a threat to her family, and it aired two days before a man pointed a gun at the building where Trump was sitting.
These are public figures with massive platforms, working in the entertainment industry, producing content that millions of people consume. Luke Skywalker has 13 million Bluesky followers. He posted an image of a dead president and said “If Only” while people with guns are actively being arrested for planning to kill that president.
The question of what constitutes protected speech is a legal one and the answer is broad. The question of what constitutes responsible behavior from people with enormous cultural platforms when the president they despise has survived three assassination attempts in two years is a different question, and the answer is obvious.
No one should be under threat of assassination over politics. Hollywood has convinced itself that its contempt for Trump exempts it from that principle. Mark Hamill posting a dead Trump image while assassination plots are being actively prosecuted is not political commentary. It is reckless and irresponsible.
Does Hollywood’s normalization of violent imagery toward political figures have real-world consequences, or is this protected expression that should be defended regardless of context?
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What the hell is wrong with all those pop culture people from the 70s?
The question of what constitutes protected speech is a legal one and the answer is broad.
Anyone calling for death of anyone should be arrested for hate speech.
If any conservative had called for the death of Obama or Biden or Kamala, they would have been sent to prison without a trial and left to rot.
But liberals can "suggest" an assassination and claim free speech.
Like every freedom we enjoy, the right to free speech comes with awesome responsibilities.
Words can get people killed.