President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Thursday to mock former presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg with a Spaceballs meme.
Bloomberg dropped out of the 2020 presidential race on Wednesday after disappointing results in the Super Tuesday contests.
“Three months ago, I entered the race to defeat Donald Trump. Today, I’m leaving for the same reason. Defeating Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. It’s clear that is my friend and a great American, @JoeBiden,” Bloomberg wrote.
Shortly after announcing his decision to exit the race, Trump responded with a tweet calling out Bloomberg for not having what it takes to win the presidency and suggesting that he wasted millions of dollars on trying to win the Democratic nomination.
Bloomberg responded within minutes with a meme from Star Wars showing Darth Vader, played by David Prowse, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Sir Alec Guinness, battling with red and blue lightsabers. He captioned the post with a warning that he would see Trump soon.
Some social media followers called Bloomberg’s reference on Wednesday a clever attack on the president because it says that striking him down is fruitless because he’s just one person, while the rest of the Democratic party is still gunning for Trump.
Others criticized it as an attempt to utilize pop culture in order to gain attention. One person using an account called “Mad Liberals” tweeted a follow-up that showed Trump’s head imposed on Lone Star, played by Bill Pullman, holding back Dark Helmet, played by Rick Moranis, in Spaceballs .
See you soon, Donald. https://t.co/hvozra0OfL pic.twitter.com/Mu300oLgeX
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) March 4, 2020
On Thursday, Trump re-tweeted the Spaceballs meme in response to Bloomberg’s tweet, captioning the post “Mini Mike, you’re easy!”
The response that Trump retweeted is one that some people on social media are calling a more clever punchline than Bloomberg’s, given that Dark Helmet is mocked for being short in the movie – an insult that Trump has repeatedly lobbed at the former New York City mayor.
Trump has frequently attacked Bloomberg, dubbing him “Mini Mike” and calling him out for a video showing the former Republican licking his fingers after eating pizza on the campaign trail. He also recently crouched behind a podium at a rally in an attempt to mock Bloomberg’s height.
Bloomberg entered the Democratic primary race late, choosing to skip the earliest states in order to spend money on advertising and social media reach instead. His gamble seemed to fail after the billionaire had disappointing results in recent contests, prompting him to drop out and put his support behind former Vice President Joe Biden.