If you’ve read my political posts, then you’ve probably seen me bring up “cultural hermeneutics” at least once or twice before. Hermeneutics is usually related to the realms of theology and Biblical studies, where it refers to the study of how best to interpret and understand a particular text. Thus, “cultural hermeneutics” — as I use the term — refers to the study of how best to interpret and understand a particular cultural artifact, be it a movie, a song, or even a meme.
We all engage in cultural hermeneutics every day, whether we realize it or not, and we do so with varying degrees of success and interest. But it’s something that Trump, MAGA, and many Republican officials are particularly terrible at. They appropriate beloved fictional characters, misunderstand popular songs and card games, and reference memes without comprehending them, and they do so with an almost gleeful cluelessness.
Earlier this month, Trump posted an AI-generated design for the “next generation” of U.S. Space Force uniforms, which he claimed were “inspired by the discipline and functionality of the Starship Trooper uniform.” Now, anyone with even the slightest hint of cultural awareness would immediately peg those uniforms as something that should only be worn by sci-fi villains. Which was entirely the point of Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 film.
The Hollywood Reporter asked [Verhoeven] what he thought of Trump and his team taking inspiration from Starship Troopers. “It’s an honor, isn’t it?” he said, laughing, before adding: “When [the Trump administration] talks about Starship Troopers, they should be aware that it’s based on the style of Leni Riefenstahl,” the filmmaker who glorified the Nazi movement in propaganda, most famously in 1935’s Triumph of the Will. “I don’t know if this president is aware that the movie says these [characters] are fascists without knowing that they’re fascists. That’s the point.”
Now, to be fair to Trump, a lot of people misunderstood Verhoeven’s film, including even its cast as they were making it. But Trump’s misunderstanding is worsened by (A) his love of cruelty and violence, as evidenced by social media posts in which he leads an army of ominous robots and rains destruction down on the Earth and (B) his love for authoritarian power, as seen by his social media posts as well as his real world admiration of autocrats and despots like Kim Jong-un, Viktor Orbán, and of course, Vladimir Putin.
It requires no stretch of the imagination to believe that Trump likes these uniforms precisely because their stark design communicates strength, toughness, and even brutality — all qualities that he, along with “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth, have tried to inculcate in the American military. And by extension, they make him look strong and powerful as Space Force’s leader (which stands in stark contrast to the reality of his actual military service, or lack thereof). Because in the end, as has always been the case, nothing matters to Trump so much as his own image, and it matters not if that image is obviously fascist.
At this point, I hold little hope that Trump and his MAGA sycophants will develop any sort of decent cultural hermeneutic, never mind any sense of shame or propriety. They’re too busy having fun trolling the rest of us with a stream of AI-generated images that are both incredibly stupid and deeply alarming. Incredibly stupid because the AI slop is so poor, even by AI slop standards, and the images themselves are so patently ridiculous (e.g., Pope Trump). And deeply alarming because these images, ridiculous as they seem, might actually represent the world they wish to bring about, and all for the glory of someone like Donald Trump.