Donald Trump may think he has America’s best interests in mind, but Uncle Sam doesn’t seem to think so anymore. As Buzzfeed reports, a video showing Trump being attacked by a bald eagle has surfaced that is both hilarious and strangely symbolic.
The video was filmed during a photo shoot Trump was doing for a TIME magazine cover story, and the shoot took place last August. Trump was named runner-up for Person of the Year – the winner for Person of the Year was Angela Merkel. The idea for the photo shoot was Martin Schoeller’s, who was also the photographer capturing the “attacks.”
What’s clear in the video is that this bald eagle has some serious personality. The eagle is 27 years old and named Uncle Sam. As the video shows, the eagle takes some playful and not-so-playful jabs at Trump while Trump just tries to stand quietly and let it perch on his arm. Trump is visibly afraid of Uncle Same after the first attack, and by the end, he leans away from the bird in fear. In the shoot, he says, “This bird is seriously dangerous but beautiful.” Trump, on the other hand, continues to just be seriously dangerous at best.
Trump is currently a contender for the Republican presidential candidacy and has come under fire this week for some arguably insensitive comments he made about Muslims. Specifically, a statement Trump released on Monday read, “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” Many people were shocked by this statement, and a petition has arisen in Britan that is set on banning Trump himself from entering the country. The online petition, which now has nearly 450,000 signatures, is trying to ban him on the basis of laws against hate speech.
Trump’s response to the ban has been to warn U.K. citizens of all the things he’s done for him. He said, “U.K. politicians should be thanking me instead of pandering to political correctness.” Either way you look at it, this eagle named Uncle Sam really does represent a large part of the American population in this video. Way to go, America.