The Red Skull Campaigns At A Donald Trump Rally
Cosplayer Slade Wilson had an idea. Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump was speaking at a rally in Portland, Maine, in early August 2016. He knew there would be protesters and supporters and wondered what would happen if one of Marvel’s evilest villains made an appearance.
“I have cosplayed as the Red Skull in the past at a few cons and I have done a parody of him as well,” he said. “I love the idea of cosplaying a villain. So when I heard Trump was coming back to Portland, I thought it would be a fun idea to go down to the rally and give people a third option for president.”
Slade gave me the opportunity to get some insight into why he did it and the things he experienced.
“I mainly did it for humor. Red Skull being a huge villain in the Marvel Universe taking on Donald Trump, I couldn’t pass it up. I was never really political and always stayed away from that process. I go to a lot of comic book conventions and I’m so used to that atmosphere. It was weird for me to see a ‘Political Con’ and protests,” he said. “I never really got involved that way. So it was cool to see that process. It felt like I was in one of the weirdest cons ever. There were actual vendors hawking Trump s*** on the courthouse steps and someone was running around peddling Hillary’s S*** to the fringe crowds (laughs). Meanwhile, I’m telling people to ‘Vote the Red Skull for a better tomorrow’ and ‘Make Hydra Great Again’ and they THOUGHT I was the crazy one!”
“Someone at the Trump rally asked me if I was getting paid to do this. And I said I was getting paid a million dollars. He asked ‘FROM WHO?!’ I said ‘HYDRA!’ Three hippie kids with guitars came up to me at the rally and asked me, ‘What will Hydra do for them?’ ‘Well I’m going to put you and you and yes you back to work and we will all work to make Hydra great again!'”
I asked Slade if he would “protest” again and what would the Red Skull say about our 2016 elections?
“I would protest again if the right situation popped up,” he said. “I couldn’t let a chance like this fly away. Trump probably won’t visit Maine again so I had to jump at a chance to do it. Plus the Red Skull is such a likable candidate (HAHA!). What does [the Red Skull] have to say about the 2016 elections? ‘We’re f***ed unless you vote the Red Skull. Only I can build the space wall to keep Thanos and the Chitauri out!'”
In a truly bizarre coincidence, an editor from the website Kotaku was vacationing in Maine at the same time and grabbed some video of Wilson at Red Skull in front of Portland City Hall.
Photos used in this article were taken from Slade Wilson’s Facebook page.
