“I am inevitable.”
So says Thanos, the archvillain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, just before he snaps his fingers in an effort to magically wipe out all life at the end of Avengers: Endgame.
And so “says” U.S. President Donald Trump in a new Twitter ad from his re-election campaign, which superimposes the president over Thanos in that final scene from the film. The clip shows Trump snapping his Democratic foes into dust, in a nod to Thanos’ diabolical plan from the earlier film Avengers: Infinity War.
Avengers spoiler alert: Thanos won the day and killed half the universe in that first movie, but he lost — and died — in his second test a few years later. “I am inevitable” were Thanos’ final words, and the moment in the ad happened just before Iron Man killed him.
Nevertheless, the president’s supporters have rallied around his latest Twitter ad, which reworks Thanos’ final line into a rallying cry for the president’s re-election.
“House Democrats can push their sham impeachment all they want,” the verified Trump War Room account tweeted on Tuesday. “President Trump’s re-election is inevitable.”
The clip has racked up more than 3.3 million views since Tuesday, although the most popular responses on Twitter have been critical of it.
Several people posted the next shot from Endgame, which shows Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man using the magical Infinity Stones to kill Thanos with a snap.
One of the most-liked responses superimposed the U.S. Constitution over Iron Man’s face and changed his line to: “I am the Constitution.”
“The Infinity War clip of him actually winning was there,” one user pointed out. “But sure, the clip where he literally dies works too.”
User @GreatScott1991 summed up the gaffe rather succinctly: “Thanos was the bad guy who was eventually defeated by the good guys, so great meme, idiots,” he wrote.
“You’ve made Trump a supervillain and depicted him in the scene where his plan to kill everyone in the universe falls apart due to his arrogance and incompetence,” added Kevin M. Kruse.
Despite the backlash, the video has been retweeted more than 9,700 times, making it far more successful than most clips shared to the Trump War Room account. Those other clips, which all solicit text messages via donation, typically flirt with 1,000 retweets.
Twitter user Jeremy Goldman vowed to not share the video in a tweet that analyzed its purpose.
“The whole point of it was to make liberals and/or sane humans RT it angrily, thus making it trend on Twitter so they can get more views and donations,” Goldman wrote. “Let’s get wise to how Trump plays this game, folks.”
The Trump War Room retweeted Goldman’s message.
Jim Starlin, the comic book writer who created Thanos, said he felt “violated” to see the character turned into a pro-Trump meme.
“After my initial feeling of being violated, seeing that pompous fool using my creation to stroke his infantile ego, it finally struck me that the leader of my country and the free world actually enjoys comparing himself to a mass murderer,” Starlin told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement.
“How sick is that?” Starlin said. “These are sad times we are going through. Fortunately, all things, even national nightmares, eventually come to an end.”