Mark Hamill isn’t afraid to be outspoken against President Donald Trump and he isn’t afraid to put his money where his mouth is.
The “Star Wars” actor tweeted Sunday that he donated to a crowd-funded campaign to become a majority shareholder in Twitter in order to remove Trump’s account.
“Let’s #BuyTwitter and #BanTrump,” Hamill wrote. “With my #ArmageddonAnxiety growing daily – I donated gladly!”
Let's #BuyTwitter and #BanTrump! With my #ArmageddonAnxiety growing daily- I donated gladly! #GoodLuckValerie https://t.co/8saF5KMnA1
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) August 27, 2017
The Gofundme campaign, started by Valerie Wilson on behalf of Global Zero, a nonprofit that works to eliminate nuclear weapons, hopes to raise $1 billion to buy enough shares in Twitter to remove the President’s account.
“Time and again his use of this huge global platform has major consequences in the real world,” Wilson writes, adding that Twitter hasn’t been doing enough to “enforce their own community standards.” “With a single tweet, he can damage international relationships and alliances, spread fake news like a virus, embolden white supremacists to march in the streets, or send stock markets crashing or soaring.”
Many people wrote back to Hamill, asking why he would impede on Trump’s right to free speech. His response was that the donation was more symbolic than legitimate, since the move seemed impossible.
The ultimate goal is $1 billion but at the time of this writing, the campaign has raised $84,000.
#BuyTwitter is symbolic & satirical (Raise $1B? LOL!) Plus-I WANT him to keep tweeting-it's all admissible evidence for #TrumpRussia/Mueller https://t.co/JT7pC9zqwY
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) August 28, 2017
This of course caused a lot of discussion in his mentions. Some agreed with Hamill, saying that Trump should be removed since he’s broken Twitter’s community guidelines and because of the aforementioned Armageddon Anxiety. Others said that it would be a violation of his First Amendment rights.
Hamill also pointed out that the money would be going to the Global Zero organization anyway.
Those claiming "Scam"-WRONG! If short of $1B all donations to Non-Profit Organization #GlobalZero-Leading Resistance to Nuclear War #WinWin https://t.co/GHWF21qvTJ
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) August 28, 2017
The actor has been using his talents to add to the discussion against Trump. A talented voice actor, he’s been reading the President’s tweets as probably his most famous character, the Joker from “Batman.”