Ron DeSantis, Please Don’t Make Me Explain Patrick Bateman To You

Republicans and bigots often do baffling things and this Ron DeSantis campaign ad really just takes the cake. The homophobic, transphobic ad cuts between anti-LGBTQIA+ statements and shots of random men. It’s already rightfully angered those included against their will like Cillian Murphy’s Tom Shelby from Peaky Blinders—which is how I found out about its existence in the first place because I try hard to ignore anything put out in support of Florida’s top bigot. So slowly discovering that the DeSantis War Room released the most unhinged video in support of DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQIA+ ideals has been a weird journey.

The ad in question centers around the bizarre claim that former president and now indicted man Donald Trump did a lot for the LGBTQIA+ community (lol). It then switches to showcasing DeSantis’ efforts to oppress that same community, all while splicing in random pop culture references.

And that’s when things get weird. In the midst of DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQIA+ work that he seems so proud of are images of characters like Shelby and Patrick Bateman. Yes, the main character of Bret Easton Ellis’ Wall Street serial killer work American Psycho. Speaking of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) from The Wolf of Wall Street was also in the ad. Why? Your guess is as good as mine!

DeSantis obviously is proud of the anti-LGBTQIA+ work he’s done and that’s what this ad is but as always, Republicans try to make pop culture references and it … fails.

Patrick Bateman was created by a gay man, Ron.

Look I am beyond aware of the complicated history of Bret Easton Ellis. That does not change the fact that Patrick Bateman, his titular character in American Psycho, was included in a video where Ron DeSantis is praising his own homophobic actions. It was weird to include fictional characters anyway but the Patrick Bateman inclusion really does raise eyebrows. American Psycho is a satire, a commentary on men like DeSantis and his followers as a whole as well as the toxic white male ideals of places like Wall Street.

Even if the character himself applied to DeSantis and what he believed, the story itself is a satire so it is making a negative commentary on those men. Pair that with DeSantis using Patrick Bateman in a video that is homophobic when Easton Ellis himself is a gay man is just the double whammy of DeSantis and his team just not understanding anything.

DeSantis’ inclusion of the character only makes sense if you’re aware that Bateman has, in recent years, been adopted as a gross, aspirational meme by the worst men on the internet—”the Andrew Tate crowd” as one expert referred to them—and that this is exactly who DeSantis is trying to court.

This is yet again another example of Republicans thinking that they’re being funny or relatable or what have you and yet again failing to actually comprehend the material they’re regurgitating. So sorry, Ron. None of these fictional examples work for your “owning” of Donald Trump (another homophobic man).

(featured image: Lionsgate)