Republican primary frontrunner criticises US president for White House screening of The Force Awakens and calls for leader with ‘real priorities’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

It’s the eternal battle for control of the most powerful force in the known galaxy, but this time there are no X-wings or TIE fighters, and the Millennium Falcon is not in sight. Republican hopeful Donald Trump has launched a US presidential campaign advert attacking Barack Obama for supposedly prioritising Star Wars over the battle against terrorism.

Speaking at his final press conference of 2015 on 18 December, Obama signed off by saying he had to go and watch the new episode in the long-running space opera, The Force Awakens. Trump’s latest ad suggests the US president should have been focused on more serious matters.

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Kicking off with footage of the November Paris attacks and the recent terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, which has been linked to Isis, the advert then cuts to images of Obama signalling his passion for the sci-fi fantasy.

“Our president is busy with another war,” continues the ad. “Time for a leader with real priorities. Trump. Make America great again.”

The Obama administration hosted a screening of The Force Awakens at the White House on 18 December. A number of children from families whose relatives were killed in the Iraq war met US first lady Michelle Obama as part of the Gold Star Families for Peace initiative.

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Trump is currently leading the Republican US presidential primary polls, despite a series of controversial pronouncements in which he advocated banning Muslims from entering the US, and called immigrants of Mexican origin drug dealers and rapists.

The mogul said in an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live on 17 December that he “might” see the new Star Wars film himself. He praised creator George Lucas’s efforts with the long-running space saga, but added: “I’m so busy, I don’t have a lot of time for this, to be honest.”

Trump’s antipathy for Star Wars appears to be reciprocated. On the promotional trail for The Force Awakens in Australia earlier in December, Harrison Ford dismissed comments from the mogul that he enjoyed the actor’s patriotic performance as a terrorist-battling president in the 1997 thriller Air Force One.

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“Donald, it was a movie,” said Ford, looking into the camera and shaking his head. “It’s not like this in real life. But how would you know?”

Trump’s lack of connection to the Force has not stopped wags from linking him to the dark side. A YouTube video posted earlier this month dubs the hotel mogul’s pronouncements over the deep baritone of James Earl Jones, who voiced Darth Vader in the original trilogy.