Mark Hamill might have some well-deserved criticisms against Donald Trump (just peruse his X page), but he hardly wishes ill-will on the former president, as a new and rarely supportive post by the actor proves.
In the past, the Star Wars actor has refused to mince words when commenting on everything from the Republican candidate’s policies to his debate performance and his penchant for stretching the truth. However, following the second assassination attempt on Trump’s life — the news of which broke yesterday — Hamill has clarified that he wants the presidential hopeful to be “safe & well.”
In a post on X, Hamill added that he is “glad to know [Trump] is okay.” It’s a fitting moment of support given the gravity of the incident, which involved a plot on Trump’s life while he was golfing at his resort in Florida.
Authorities are investigating that apparent assassination attempt, which was discovered when Trump’s Secret Service agents spotted a man with a firearm hiding in the shrubbery surrounding the golf property. A suspect has since been taken into custody, and Trump himself confirmed on social media he is “SAFE AND WELL” while his opponent, Kamala Harris, declared there is “no place for violence in America.”
Also adopting that same sentiment, Hamill’s tweet confirms that political violence is never the answer, not least because he wants Trump to be held accountable for his actions. The actor said he would like Trump to stick around so “he can, at long last, face accountability in a court of law when he loses on November 5th, 2024.” Many fans clocked to Hamill’s post to agree with him, reiterating that we “need [Trump] alive and well to watch him lose the election.”
Others quipped that Trump “absolutely can’t miss his date with Lady Justice,” and added that Americans “believe in justice in a courtroom, not with bullets.”
It’s not the first time Hamill — who has turned criticisms of Trump into something of an artform — has seemed to approach Trump from a place of understanding. In July, following widely-circulated images of Trump taking what looked to be a nap during the RNC, Hamill said “for once, I’m with him,” posting a side-by-side comparison of himself and the former president headed for Snoozeville.
These are perhaps the only two instances of Hamill seemingly reaching across the aisle, however, since more recent interactions have ranged from doubling down on Barack Obama’s crowd size joke at the DNC, to describing Trump as an “orange nightmare” and likening the politician’s ramblings to a “kid giving an oral report on a book he hasn’t read.”
Hamill is much more fond of fellow Trump critic and certified bestie Stephen King, saying last week he wanted to frame a recent interaction he had with the acclaimed author on X. Who knows, maybe Hamill, King and Trump will someday soon be the unlikely power trio we never knew we needed. On second thought, we actually don’t need that at all.