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JD Vance has raised the eyebrows of Star Wars fans and Donald Trump supporters alike after he revealed that he is a fan of the sci-fi franchise’s much-maligned prequel trilogy.
Vance has shared his thoughts on the prequels, released between 1999 and 2005, after wading into a debate about the films with conservative commentator Jack Posobiec.
“The prequels suck because they were poorly made by George Lucas who only had a small role in the original series,” Posobiec wrote on X/Twitter.
“The sequels suck because they are abominations made by Disney committees and JJ Abrams simps,” he added.
JD Vance replied to Posobiec by saying: “Prequels were underrated!”
The Star Wars prequel trilogy consists of The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005). Although there has been some revisionist apprecation of the films in recent years, the popular consensus is that they were of a poorer quality than the original trilogy and were jam-packed with shoddy CGI and divisive characters such as Jar Jar Binks.
Another big criticism of the prequels revolved around the complicated plot point of trade taxations imposed by the Galactic Republic on the “Trade Federation”.
In the real world, the US also imposed trade tariffs on various countries earlier this year at the behest of Trump, in an effort to increase homegrown production and reduce trade imbalances.
The similarities between the prequels and the US’s current economic situation thanks have not gone unnoticed by Star Wars fans ,who were more than happy to point out the irony in Vance’s position.
Author G Elliot Morris noted: “The Star Wars prequels are all about how an unfair and severe galactic tariff policy causes instability in the multi-planetary political order that ultimately enables an authoritarian to seize power under the guise of restoring peace and prosperity to the republic. Deja vu…”
Another person said: “The prequels are about how pro-tariff policies and authoritarianism are joined at the hip and will ultimately lead to the collapse of civilisation”.
“Hoo boy,” joked a third while sharing an image of The Phantom Menace’s opening crawl which explains the turmoil caused by the taxation on the trade routes.
The Trump administration has become entangled in a series of Star Wars controversies in the last few days, after the White House shared an AI-generated image of the president clutching a lightsaber in front of a backdrop of US flags and a pair of bald eagles.
It was posted to mark Star Wars Day, celebrated on 4 May (or “May the fourth”) as a nod to the film series catchphrase: “May the force be with you.”
However, fans of the sci-fi film and television franchise pointed out that Trump’s red lightsaber in the image marks him out as a villainous Sith Lord himself.
Trump faced further backlash from Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill who joked that Trump is “full of Sith”.
English (US) ·