Mark Hamill has pulled no punches while reacting to an image of Donald Trump holding the missing poster of a kidnap victim.
The noted Trump critic offered his thoughts on the image in an X post shared on Oct. 21. The image in question is from earlier this month, when the former president attended an event commemorating the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
While there, Trump was seen holding a picture of an American named Edan Alexander, who was kidnapped by Hamas during those attacks. The Republican presidential candidate was photographed sporting a wide grin while holding the missing poster of Alexander, prompting outrage online including from Hamill.
“Who grins gleefully while holding a photo of a kidnap victim?,” the Star Wars actor wrote. Hamill went on to compare the image of Trump to the similarly tone-deaf photos of him giving a thumbs-up gesture while appearing at the Arlington National Cemetery for fallen soldiers.
“This isn’t thumbs-up at a gravestone bad,” Hamill said about Trump’s cemetery snafu, “but I can’t help but wonder what the hostage’s parents’ expressions were when they saw this image?”. The actor concluded his message by saying that the image of Trump is evidence that “the man is mentally deeply unwell.”
According to reports of Trump’s appearance at the Oct. 7 event, the inexplicable grin wasn’t the only cringe-worthy moment. The former president also reportedly offered to autograph a Jewish prayer book while visiting a grave site later on in the ceremony (what is it with him and graveyard blunders?), but the offer was understandably rejected.
Both the kidnapped poster and the Arlington Cemetery photos add to a long line of incidents in which Trump has appeared gleeful during solemn moments. Earlier this year, he was seen blowing a kiss and flashing a thumbs-up (his go-to move) during the 9/11 memorial service, and in 2019, he copped deserved heat for again giving a thumbs-up in a picture with a baby who was just orphaned by a mass shooting.
Hamill’s post is one of multiple that have taken square aim at Trump in recent weeks. The actor and proud Geek and Nerd for Kamala Harris revelled in the onslaught of singers who denounced Trump’s Town Hall dance concert, criticized Trump’s running mate JD Vance, and described Trump as a “kid giving an oral report on a book he’s never read.”
Oh, Hamill has also reminded us of Trump’s tenuous relationship with the truth, joined in on Barack Obama’s suggestive joke at the Democratic National Convention, and labelled Trump a “national orange nightmare.” All that, and he still found time to star in a new movie and rally support for the Harris campaign as one of multiple celebrity endorsers.
On the happier side of his social media algorithm, Hamill found at least some joy last month when he finally connected with his longtime idol and fellow anti-Trump tweeter Stephen King. So maybe there is a silver lining in all this mess after all.