By Donald Trump's latest foray into cack-handedly leveraging pop culture into the service of his White House has gone about as well as the attempt to use Game of Thrones imagery to warn that "sanctions are coming".
He tweeted out a video supporting his 2020 re-election campaign which was blocked by Twitter thanks to a copyright violation on the soundtrack. As a chorus of Twitter users pointed out almost immediately, it featured Hanz Zimmer's score from The Dark Knight Rises - specifically the track 'Why Do We Fall?' which, out of context, sounds like the title of a Korn song. You can not watch the video here, if you like.
What's in the actual video? There's not much to see really, apart from noted Democrats like Bryan Cranston and Rosie O'Donnell looking a bit crestfallen and defeated, juxtaposed with Trump looking terribly pleased with himself, then as Zimmer's score crests, the phrase: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they call you racist." Fnarr.
Warner Bros took a very dim view of the whole thing, and got Twitter to take it down as well as issuing a statement. "The use of Warner Bros’ score from The Dark Knight Rises in the campaign video was unauthorised," a spokesperson said. "We are working through the appropriate legal channels to have it removed."
So where did the video come from? Buzzfeed says it was posted on the r/The_Donald subreddit and was made by someone/something called 'MateyProductions' which, as far as we know, doesn't have anything to do with the popular anthropomorphic bubble-bath manufacturers.
The major problem, you've got to say, is that for Trump to make a convincing Batman he'd have to wander up to the top of Trump Tower and glower over New York rather than, as the short clips of the video still doing the rounds show, beaming smugly in the time-honoured fashion of your Jokers, your Two-Faces, your Penguins, your Riddlers.
