Former President Donald Trump is using an iconic character from Stanley Kubrick‘s ‘Full Metal Jacket‘ to promote his vision of a stronger, more traditional military, while also mocking the Biden administration’s support for LGBTQ+ individuals serving openly.
At his recent rallies, Trump has showcased a video featuring R. Lee Ermey’s character, Marine Gunnery Sgt. Hartman, who is known for his aggressive, vulgar and demeaning treatment of recruits in the 1987 film.
Those clips, captioned “THEN,” are juxtaposed with Ermey’s harsh drill sergeant, whereas clips of people expressing support for LGBTQ+ rights and drag performers, are captioned “NOW” and “THE BIDEN HARRIS MILITARY.”

The video ends with a shot from the movie, a scene before the recruits were sent to Vietnam, captioned with “LET’S MAKE OUR MILITARY GREAT AGAIN.” The video was showcased at several Trump rallies before he posted it on social media on Saturday.
The late filmmaker’s daughter Vivian Kubrick said she believes her father would have supported Trump and overlooked his use of an anti-war film to emphasise the importance of building a strong military.
“That’s primarily what FMJ is about, the shocking and complicated paradoxes of human nature,” Vivian Kubrick wrote Sunday on the social media platform X.
“And thus, on this tooth and claw planet, you need a very strong military — so I’m going to stick with the idea that FMJ footage was used primarily because of its powerful, realistic portrayal of boot camp, juxtaposed with the entirely demoralizing and inappropriate injection of WOKE ideology into the USA military,” she added. “Which I agree with myself and which I’m certain my father would have agreed with.”
While Trump praised Ermey, saying that the actor should have won an Academy Award for his performance, critics have called his campaign’s use of the film manipulative.
Matthew Modine, Ermey’s co-star who played Private Joker, condemned Trump’s use of the film, calling it a “distorted” and “perverse” twist of Kubrick’s anti-war message.