Trump Says He Keeps Talking About Hannibal Lecter Because ‘These Are Real Stories’

Former President Donald Trump told rally attendees on Wednesday that he keeps invoking the fictional Dr. Hannibal Lecter because “these are real stories.”

Played by Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs, Lecter is an incarcerated cannibal who helps an FBI agent track down a killer who murders women and wears their skin. The doctor ultimately escapes captivity by killing two police officers.

Trump has for some reason spoken favorably of Lecter several times at rallies and in turn has mocked reporters and pundits when they inevitably point out how strange that is.

Speaking in Charlotte, North Carolina, the former president did the Lecter bit again while talking about immigration:

They’re coming not just from South America, but from Africa, from Asia, from the Middle East. They’re coming from everywhere. They’re coming from all over the world from prisons and jails, mental institutions, and insane asylums!

You know, they go crazy when I say the late great Hannibal Lecter, ok? They say, “Why would he mention Hannibal Lecter? He must be cognitively in trouble.”

No, no. These are real stories. Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lamb. He’s a lovely man. He wants to have you for dinner. He’d like to have you for dinner.

As Trump said “you for dinner,” he pointed to a member of the crowd.

The former president has mentioned Lecter in rallies as early as May, when he called Lecter a “wonderful man.” In June, he advised his supporters not to hang out with the fictional doctor.

“Don’t do it,” Trump admonished the audience.

Watch above via Fox News.

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