House Speaker Mike Johnson defended a bizarre video shared by Donald Trump that showed the president bombing “No Kings” protesters with excrement. At a press conference on Monday, the Louisiana Republican said the scatalogical Trump clip was “satire” and that it paled in comparison to the violent rhetoric of Trump’s political opponents.
“He is using satire to make a point. He is not calling for the murder of his political opponents, and that’s what these people are doing,” Johnson said.
Trump responded to “No Kings” protests that swept the country over the weekend, with an AI-generated video showing him in a fighter jet labeled “KING TRUMP.” Wearing a crown, the animated Trump dumped liquid human waste on protesters to the sounds of “Danger Zone.”
Johnson presented pictures of signs reading “86 47” at his Monday press conference. The term “86” is service industry slang. When used as a verb, it typically means to eject or ban a person from an establishment. Johnson used the term as evidence that the non-violent nationwide protests had an underlying violent intent.
“They’re trying to incite violence. It’s not funny. You don’t mock a president who has already had two failed assassination attempts on his life,” Johnson said.
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Away from Capitol Hill, the video garnered a strong reaction from Kenny Loggins. The singer behind the 1986 hit that soundtracked Trump’s bombing run, demanded that the president remove his song from the video in a statement to NPR on Monday.
“This is an unauthorized use of my performance of ‘Danger Zone.’ Nobody asked me for my permission, which I would have denied, and I request that my recording on this video is removed immediately,” Loggins said. “Too many people are trying to tear us apart, and we need to find new ways to come together. We’re all Americans, and we’re all patriotic. There is no ‘us and them’ – that’s not who we are, nor is it what we should be.”
