Fox News usually stands by Donald Trump and his decisions, but that staple has been broken, as Trey Gowdy took jabs at the President and the stock market under his Administration. Speaking to Forbes media chairman and editor-in-chief Steve Forbes, Gowdy compared the stock market and Silence of the Lambs, claiming that he has been watching the hit slacker flick instead of the stock market as he found it to be “less scary.”
Speaking to Forbes on his show Sunday Night in America, host Trey Gowdy kicked off the conversation, saying, “I actually stopped looking at the market. I’ve been watching Silence of the Lambs. I’ve been watching Silence of the Lambs ‘cos it’s less scary for me than looking at the stock market.” He then asked Forbes, “What’s going on with the market?”
Gowdy: I’ve been watching Silence of the Lambs because it’s less scary for me than looking at the stock market pic.twitter.com/N9E76UNoEJ
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 17, 2025
Steve Forbes, in response, first played along with the slasher flick reference, saying, “Well, don’t pay too much attention to Hannibal right now.” He then began to break things down to Gowdy.
“The uncertainty of the tariffs has really hurt businesses and individuals, halting all their plans. They want to see what the rules of the road are going into the future. So, the sooner the President can get stability, in terms of setting these tariff rates, people know what the rules of the game are… Rates don’t change 25… 50 percent… 10 percent. Because that disrupts the… It’s not just prices. It’s the supply chain. Who are you gonna buy from in terms of materials? At what price? So, the sooner that gets done, the better.”
Forbes continued, “All that underscores something that you’ve been hitting on in the past. The need to pass immediately a big, beautiful tax cut bill to get real taxwinds for this economy. And that’s what happened in 2017. The tariffs didn’t come until after the tax bill was passed. That was good. So, in terms of the tax bill, I hope your former colleagues throw away the roadblocks thrown up by the Congressional Budget Office which is not in the Constitution, and put a big tax in place. Not just renewing the tax cuts, Trey, but also cutting individual income tax rates. Get around this blue-state obsession with deductibility assaults… state and local taxes and cut to tax rates.”
But Trey Gowdy didn’t just refer to a random slasher film, as Silence of the Lambs happens to be a film that fascinates Donald Trump. He has publicly name-dropped the film while on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania in July 2023. Claiming that migrants, who had spent time in asylums, were pouring into America via the US-Mexico border, Trump said, “That’s like Silence of the Lambs stuff. But they’re coming into our country.”
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Since then, Rolling Stone has reported that Donald Trump has mentioned the film or its main character 11 times. Commenting on Trump’s fascination with the film, Anthony Hopkins (who plays the lead in it) said, As if (Hannibal Lecter) is real? I’m shocked and appalled (by) what you’ve told me about Trump.”
