Mark Hamill apologized and removed an AI-generated image showing Donald Trump in a shallow grave after the White House condemned the post.
The White House has condemned Mark Hamill after the Star Wars actor posted an AI-generated image showing President Donald Trump in a shallow grave, calling him “one sick individual.”
The image, posted on Hamill’s Bluesky account, showed Trump with his eyes shut beside a headstone reading “Donald J. Trump 1946-2024.” It was accompanied by the caption “if only,” according to BBC News. Hamill later deleted the post and apologized.
“Actually, I was wishing him the opposite of dead, but apologize if you found the image inappropriate,” Hamill wrote after removing the image.
The White House press team responded on the same platform, accusing “Radical Left lunatics” of inflammatory language and saying rhetoric of that kind had inspired assassination attempts against Trump. BBC News reported it had asked Hamill’s representatives for comment on the White House remarks.
In another now-deleted post on X, Hamill wrote that Trump should live long enough to see what the actor described as an eventual midterm defeat, accountability for corruption and disgrace in history. Hamill is best known for playing Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars films beginning in 1977 and has also voiced the Joker in DC Comics projects.
The dispute comes amid heightened sensitivity around violent political language. Last month, a man fired a shotgun outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington in what authorities have said was an attempt to assassinate Trump. Trump was also shot in the ear at a Pennsylvania rally in 2024, where the gunman was killed by the Secret Service. In another 2024 incident, a man was found hiding with weapons near where Trump was playing golf and was convicted in February of attempted assassination.
The White House has recently criticized entertainment figures over jokes and comments it deemed violent or hateful. After the Correspondents’ Dinner shooting, Melania Trump and other officials called for ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel over a parody sketch referring to the first lady as having a “glow like an expectant widow.” Kimmel rejected the criticism, saying the joke referred to the couple’s age difference and that hateful and violent rhetoric should be rejected.
For now, Hamill’s apology and deletion have not ended the criticism from the White House, and there has been no further public response from his representatives in the supplied reporting.
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