Opinion
Perhaps because of his own nature of celebrity, the Trump presidency has turned many actors and actresses into amplified voices in the conversation. The odds are good that you wouldn’t be listening to what Alyssa Milano or James Woods have to say if they weren’t talking about Trump, Republicans, and the #resistance.
But it’s not just B-list celebrities. A number of household names have come out against Trump.
Then, there’s Samuel L. Jackson. He’s become a phenom on Twitter, his missives enriched because you can almost always read them in his iconic half-yelling tone a la every shoot-out scene in which he has ever starred.
Jackson first really entered the Twitter arena of political commentary during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings when he commented on that a video that spliced clips of a scene from Pulp Fiction with the hearings. Jackson wrote, “there’s there’s nothing funny about his Lying Fratboy Ass!!!”
Funny as hell, but there’s nothing funny about his Lying Fratboy Ass!!! https://t.co/rSHcrMzMUM
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) September 28, 2018
That little stab at a now-Supreme Court justice earned writeups from all the political blogs, including HuffPost and the Hill and it was probably the first time that people actually began watching Jackson as a snarky Twitter commentator.
Since then, he’s only increased his anger at the administration.
Perhaps the funniest development in the era of Jackson, #resistance hero, was the time that he called Trump a “hemorrhoid” for trying to shut down the country over his border wall, including the Pulp Fiction-inspired quip #yesthefuckyoudidmotherfucker.
Why is that Hemorrhoid threatening to shut down the Government over a Wall budget? What happened to “and Mexico is gonna pay for it”??!!#ineversaidthat#yesthefuckyoudidmotherfucker
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) November 26, 2018
In response, some people who thought that Jackson had gone too far and reported his tweet to Twitter.
He got the last laugh:
Hahahahahahahaha Hahahahahaha,ah ah ah….hahahahahahahaha, some Muthafukka tried it,ahhhhahahahaha pic.twitter.com/qCgAR4VYKH
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) November 28, 2018
It was the endpoint of an intensification of anger over the past month. Jackson has been brutal to Trump lately. And it’s resulted in some vivid insults, such as when he called the commander-in-chief “that Busted Condom passing as POTUS.”
I guess that Busted Condom passing as POTUS forgot to pack any thoughts & prayers for California for that trip to Paris. Let’s just drop the TU & get real!!!
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) November 10, 2018
On another occasion, he joked about Trump’s bone spurs, the excuse he gave to get out of military service, and which this week turned out to be likely false.
Has That Muthafukka tweeted about God or Mother Nature making him disrespect Our WWI Brave Military Dead, yet??!! Prolly OD’d on Pommes Frites at the Embassy, rain makes your bone spurs act up!!
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) November 11, 2018
But more often than not, Jackson goes back to the iconic lines from Pulp Fiction. Here’s a tweet that he pushed out after a deranged Trump supporter was arrested on suspicion of mailing bombs to prominent Democrats.
TERRORISM Muthafukkah, Can You Say it???!!!!!!
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) October 24, 2018
But he’s not just tweeting his frustrations. Jackson has also partnered with the Democratic grassroots group Swing Left to put out a few videos. Unfortunately, the scripts that they’ve given him for these pieces always box him in and never let him get into one of his trademark rants.
Volunteer this fall. What the fuck are you waiting for? I’m waiting for @ColinAllredTX’s cable guy. https://t.co/byhvG2zmdC pic.twitter.com/qTBSIRkobR
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) October 11, 2018
Jackson was also pretty vocal about the gubernatorial race in Georgia where Stacy Abrams lost to Brian Kemp, who was accused of voter suppression efforts.
The actor has been diversifying his #resistance efforts as well, attacking the Trump administration on Instagram as well as Twitter. Recently, he slammed ICE after a 7-year-old girl died in its custody.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Brbw_BDgvFi/
In another, Jackson posted a selfie wearing a T-shirt with the inscription “Yes, he’s a racist”—the jab obviously aimed at Trump. Like all of Jackson’s better put-downs, it worked best when read in his half-yelling voice.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd2hXoBAm3w/
Being critical of Trump in Hollywood is hardly a black mark on your record. He’s not going anywhere from his role as Nick Fury in future Marvel movies.
More notable is the extent to which Jackson’s Twitter persona fits with the characters that he has played during his career. We feel like we already know this foul-mouthed outlaw who fights for what’s right in a less-than-polite sort of way. “Busted condom” and “hemorrhoid” both sound like lines that one of Jackson’s characters would lay on somebody before he pumped them full of lead. Consider Carl Lee Hailey in A Time to Kill or Detective John Shaft.
That’s why he feels like such an emblem of the #resistance, the same group that has shown a tendency to embrace people who will voice how they really feel about the president, and who are always looking for that next character to top off their shots at the president with a well-placed insult.