Wildly propagandistic and a great example of the military enthusiasm that Kubrick satirizes in “Dr. Strangelove,” the year-end video is Trump’s hawkishness in its mildest form. The video is troubling in how it attempts to normalize the military-industrial complex but is not necessarily a huge departure from established American political audiovisual rhetoric. Trump’s year-end video may be the kind of imagery officially endorsed by the campaign but is hardly the most representative. Trump’s Americana is “best” expressed through memes and art created by his supporters who turn to photoshop and create their own characterizations of Trump’s power by employing over the top comic representations of strength and violence. While not officially associated with his administration, since the early days of his campaign, Trump and his closest allies have shared and endorsed these fan-made memes. Being elected President has done little to squash Trump’s reliance on sharing inflammatory images either and it seems unlikely he will stop anytime soon.

It does not take long to find Trump memes using Nuclear imagery. While most employ dramatic blood red mushroom clouds sitting on the horizon, some allude directly to “Dr. Strangelove”’s most famous image, Slim Pickens riding the atomic bomb down to his target whooping and whipping his cowboy hat. This particular meme, featuring Trump riding a bomb into Washington, was actually created by an anti-Trump account but it is frequently used by #MAGA supporters. While initially used to satirize Trump’s trigger-happy impulse, among his fans, it is a celebration of his ability to sow chaos. An encapsulation of this attitude comes in the pro-Trump political cartoon by Glenn McCoy, where Trump’s finger hovers over the nuclear button labeled “Liberal Trigger,” in reference to his January 3rd tweet where Trump claims that his Nuclear button is “much bigger & more powerful” than Kim Jong-Un’s. The cartoon celebrates Trump’s ability to rile up liberals as his greatest asset.

If “Dr. Strangelove” and Donald Trump both seem to be trolling for reactions, what actually sets them apart? Fundamentally, Trump is the perfect articulation of the power-hungry warmonger that Kubrick is satirizing. He poses with jet fighters and threatens war as a means of expressing his power, while Kubrick exposes that impulse as the reason Nuclear deterrence strategies are inherently flawed. If both use comedy, it is to diametrically opposed goals. When Trump makes a joke, it is to belittle his targets and amplify his own reputation. Kubrick, on the other hand, uses comedy to tear down those in power, exposing them as impulsive and weak.

As the world comes to an end in “Dr. Strangelove,” images of Nuclear annihilation fill the screen with Vera Lynn’s jaunty sendoff “We’ll Meet Again.” The image of a mushroom cloud does not just signal a vague aura of destruction, but a specific legacy of American foreign policy. Trump is, undeniably, reckless compared to his predecessors but his love for the bomb is as American as apple pie, Norman Rockwell or baseball.



