Donald Trump posted a transphobic video on X over the weekend attacking LGBTQ+ members of the military.
“WE WILL NOT HAVE A WOKE MILITARY!” Trump yelled in all caps along with the clip.
The video intended to highlight the difference between the twice-impeached former president’s vision of the U.S. military and one headed up by his Democratic opponent, whom he labels “Comrade” Kamala Harris.
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There are problems with the comparison.
The 90-second montage, which Trump has deployed at rallies in recent weeks before posting it online Saturday, extols the virtues of a lethal fighting force but is in fact based on an anti-war film, director Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, which explicitly denounces the behavior it depicts.
Not that the details matter to Trump.
The ad mixes clips from the Vietnam War film with video of two serving officers, trans four-star Admiral Rachel Levine and out naval officer Joshua Kelley.
The idea is to depict Trump’s military as an elite fighting force while the Democrats’ version is “weak and gay.”
Cut between clips of a gunnery sergeant in the movie abusing recruits to “man them up” (before one will memorably blow his head off with a shotgun), are videos featuring Admiral Levine sharing a Pride Month announcement and naval officer Kelley morphing from navy fatigues into their drag persona.
The result is a mixed-up message about the psychological horrors of armed conflict turning young Americans into killing machines along with random clips of trans and gay members of the military and a drag queen – just more digital detritus in service of the side-show carnival that is a late-stage Donald Trump rally.
Levine, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health and an admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, has been the target of transphobic Republican attacks since her appointment by President Biden in 2021.
Kelley crossed Trump’s radar in 2018 when the Yeoman 1st Class performed as their drag persona Harpy Daniels (see Stormy) during events organized by the Navy’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department. In 2022, Kelley announced they’d been chosen as a “Digital Ambassador” by the Navy to help boost recruitment.
“Anyone who volunteers to serve their country should never have to be slandered or ostracized just because they choose to live their life authentically,” Kelley told Queerty after the video was published.
“If anyone chooses to hate me for serving my country and living my life authentically, I simply will say you’re welcome, and I have the watch,” which is said in the military to mean one is on duty and keeping watch.
“Queer people have always served, and we’re not going anywhere,” Kelley added. “Be proud of who you are because in life, haters only hate when you are winning.”
Trump fanboy and X-owner Elon Musk jumped on the anti-woke bandwagon with predictable head-nodding in reply to the convicted felon’s post.
“Absolutely,” Musk tweeted. “The military’s job is to defend America, not engage in social activism.”
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