“I love the smell of napalm in the morning”. That classic line, said by Robert Duvall in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, is one we’ve all probably repeated at one point or another, and made it part of our lexicon. Even those who have never seen the war movie know it, but apparently Donald Trump? Well, he don’t know shit about it. Not that you can convince him of his ignorance.
In a bizarre story from early in his *shudder* administration, Trump and newfound nemesis Omarosa Manigault-Newman were hosting a meeting with military veterans and the discussion turned to helping vets with specific issues, with one bringing up those affected by deadly herbicide Agent Orange. Trump then asked if Agent Orange was “that stuff from the movie”, and eventually it became clear that he was talking about the napalm in Apocalypse Now that Duvall’s character was referring to.
The vets tried to explain the difference, but Trump being Trump he wouldn’t listen to those who actually know more than him…which is just about everybody on the damned planet. Here’s a breakdown of it courtesy of The Daily Beast…
Trump refused to accept that he was mistaken and proceeded to say things like, “no, I think it’s that stuff from that movie.”
One clue belying the president’s insistence is that the famous Robert Duvall line from the scene in Apocalypse Now, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” is not “I love the smell of Agent Orange in the morning.”
He then went around the room polling attendees about if it was, in fact, napalm or Agent Orange in the famous scene from “that movie,” as the gathering—organized to focus on important, sometimes life-or-death issues for veterans—descended into a pointless debate over Apocalypse Now that the president simply would not concede, despite all the available evidence.
Eventually Trump’s questioning got around to the original vet who asked the question, and he again told him that it was napalm, and that the film was hardly an advocate for war veterans. Trump couldn’t handle being wrong so he decided to be a dick and replied, “Well, I think you just didn’t like the movie”, as if the soldier had some sort of axe to grind.
It’s okay to totally fuck up a pop culture reference or miss the point of something; I do it all the time. But I think this anecdote involving one of the greatest war films ever tells us everything we need to know about the guy currently sitting in the White House. Not only did Trump feel the need to try and school military veterans when he has earned the nickname “Cadet Bone Spurs” for his draft-dodging efforts, but he apparently thinks they come to official meetings to talk about shit they saw in a 40-year-old movie.
