The White House is pressing former President Barack Obama to speak out after “Star Wars” actor Mark Hamill shared an AI-generated image of President Donald Trump lying dead in a grave.
Hamill posted the image on Bluesky on Wednesday, May 6, showing Trump with his eyes closed in a shallow grave, surrounded by white flowers.
A gravestone read “Donald J. Trump 1946-2024,” and the words “If Only” appeared across the picture.
In a follow-up comment, Hamill wrote that Trump “should live long enough to witness his inevitable devastating loss in the midterms, be held accountable for his unprecedented corruption, impeached, convicted & humiliated for his countless crimes.”
The post landed just days after a third assassination attempt on Trump. That incident occurred at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, where a gunman tried to breach security at the Washington Hilton.
Hamill meets Obama
White House spokesman Davis Ingle called Hamill “one sick individual” and described the image as a “disgusting call to violence.”
Ingle drew a direct line to Obama after noting that Hamill had appeared with the former president in a video just three days earlier.
The pair marked Star Wars Day on May 4 and promoted the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
“Barack Hussein Obama just appeared in a video with this deranged lunatic three days ago,” Ingle said as quoted by Fox News on Thursday.
“Now this same person is calling for President Trump to die. Why won’t Obama and Democrats condemn this disgusting call to violence?”
Trump allies argue the post crosses a line at a moment when the president faces real security threats. Trump has survived multiple attempts on his life, making any depiction of his death especially raw.
Hamill, 74, played Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars films and has remained outspokenly opposed to Trump for years.
He has used social media to criticize the president on everything from policy to personality. Supporters of Hamill say the image was meant as dark satire, not a literal threat. They point to his long history of mixing humor with politics.
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Trump allies, however, see it as part of a pattern. They accuse parts of Hollywood and the left of normalizing violent rhetoric against Trump.
Several Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators called for Hamill to face consequences, though no legal action appears likely given First Amendment protections for political speech.
Until publishing this, Obama had not commented publicly on the post.
Democrats have largely stayed quiet on Hamill’s image. Some party figures privately worry that defending or ignoring it could backfire politically.
AI images
The use of AI images to push a narrative has been on the rise in recent days. President Trump himself has been using AI to generate and post images on social media, including those depicting him as Jesus Christ.
Tools that generate realistic fake photos have made it easier to create shocking content, raising new worries about misinformation and incitement.
Platforms like Bluesky have faced calls to do more to moderate such material, though enforcement remains inconsistent.
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Trump has not directly addressed Hamill’s post, but aides say he views it as further proof of the “deranged” opposition he faces. The president has used past threats to rally his base, casting himself as a fighter under constant attack.
Obama has tried to maintain some distance from day-to-day partisan battles since leaving office, but his recent collaboration with Hamill now ties him to the controversy.
On social media, Obama’s supporters say it is unfair to hold the former president responsible for every statement made by someone he appeared with.
