Kamal Ghorui
Mark Hamill, best known for his iconic role as Luke Skywalker in the ‘Star Wars’ franchise, has apologised after sharing a controversial social media post featuring an image of Donald Trump in a grave. The post sparked an immediate and strong response from the White House, prompting the actor to delete the image and replace it with an updated version of his message.On Wednesday, Hamill posted a seemingly AI-generated image on Bluesky of Trump lying in a shallow grave with daisies growing around him. The image featured a gravestone bearing the president’s name and the years “1946-2024,” along with the message “If Only” in large lettering at the bottom.
What Mark Hamill posted and why he deleted it
Hamill captioned his post, “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 and humiliated for his countless crimes.” He added, “Long enough to realize he’ll be disgraced in the history books, forevermore,” along with the hashtag “#don_TheCON.”The post remained live until Thursday afternoon, at which point Hamill deleted it and shared an updated version without the grave image. “Accurate Edit for Clarity: ‘He should live long enough to… be held accountable for his… crimes,'” he wrote in the new post, which featured an unflattering photo of Trump instead. “Actually, I was wishing him the opposite of dead, but apologize if you found the image inappropriate.“
White House responds to Mark Hamill’s post
The response from the White House was swift and pointed. White House Spokesman Davis Ingle responded to the post in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. “Barack Hussein Obama just appeared in a video with this deranged lunatic three days ago,” he wrote. “Now this same person is calling for President Trump to die. Why won’t Obama and Democrats condemn this disgusting call to violence?”The official White House Rapid Response account on X also weighed in, writing, “@MarkHamill is one sick individual. These Radical Left lunatics just can’t help themselves. This kind of rhetoric is exactly what has inspired three assassination attempts in two years against our President.”Hamill’s post came 11 days after an alleged attempted shooter was apprehended at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington D.C. Hilton.
Mark Hamill’s history of posts against the Trump administration
This is not the first time Hamill has drawn attention for sharing politically charged content. On April 28, he posted a seemingly AI-generated image that parodied a well-known photo of Trump holding his fist above his head after an alleged assassination attempt near Butler, Pennsylvania. The image featured fellow Trump critic Jimmy Kimmel in the position of the president, surrounded by sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez and fellow late-night hosts Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers. “He hates comedy because it speaks truth to power and a malignant narcissist can’t handle that,” Hamill wrote at the time.Meanwhile, the White House has repeatedly used imagery from the ‘Star Wars’ franchise to cast Trump in a favourable light. On May 4, the official White House account posted an image of Trump as the Mandalorian character Din Djarin holding Grogu, also known as Baby Yoda, with the caption “In a galaxy that demands strength, America stands ready. This is the way. May the 4th be with you.”A year prior, the White House posted an image of Trump with muscular arms holding a red lightsaber, the weapon traditionally associated with evil Sith lords in the ‘Star Wars’ universe, alongside a message taking aim at what the post called Radical Left Lunatics.
