Fact Check: Did Hannibal Lecter say he loves Donald Trump? Anthony Hopkins claim debunked

The frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination, Donald Trump made headlines on Saturday, October 7, while speaking at an Iowa Rally. In a mix-up between actor and character, the former president complimented "Hannibal Lecter" for being a great "actor" and stated that he had said on TV that he loved Donald Trump.

This is, however, not true as Sir Anthony Hopkins, who played Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs has never shown his love for Trump and has previously stated that he does not much care for him.

Donald Trump at a rally in Iowa (Image via Instagram/@realdonaldtrump)

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Sir Anthony Hopkins never cared for Donald Trump

On Saturday, October 7, Donald Trump spoke at an Iowa rally and vehemently criticized the USA's open border politics before claiming that people from "insane asylums" were getting into the country. This was when he referenced Hannibal Lecter and The Silence of The Lambs. However, he confused the character's name for the name of the actor as he said:

"Hannibal Lecter, how great an actor was he? You know why I like him? Because he said on television on one of the – ‘I love Donald Trump.’ So I love him. I love him. I love him."

He continued:

"He said that a long time ago and once he said that, he was in my camp, I was in his camp. I don’t care if he was the worst actor, I’d say he was great to me."

Even though multiple actors have played Hannibal Lecter in different films, Donald Trump was seemingly referring to Sir Anthony Hopkins, who played the character in the 1991 classic, The Silence of The Lambs. However, Hopkins has never said that he loved Trump on TV. He has also stated that he doesn't care for Trump in a 2018 Guardian interview with Miranda Sawyer, who stated:

"We talk politics. He (Anthony Hopkins) doesn’t care about Trump."

Hopkins was quoted by the outlet as saying:

"I don’t vote because I don’t trust anyone. We’ve never got it right, human beings. We are all a mess, and we’re very early in our evolution."

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The actors who played Hannibal Lecter over the years and what they said about Trump

Hopkins reprised his role in the sequels to The Silence of The Lambs, 2001s Hannibal, and the following year's Red Dragon. The cannibal serial killer was first played by Brian Cox in the 1986 film, Manhunter, followed by Gaspar Uriel in 2007's Hannibal Rising, and Mads Mikkelsen in the Hannibal TV series.

Mads Mikkelsen said in a 2016 CBS News interview that he had no idea what to think about Donald Trump as he had never met him.

"He’s obviously not the classic politician, that’s for sure. I can definitely laugh at some of the stuff he says but I can also go, 'Oh my God, did he say that?' I think he’s a fresh wind for some people, but that’s what you’re voting for, I guess, right? It’s a big job," he said.

Brian Cox, now famous for playing Logan Roy in Succession, has been very clear about his feelings for Donald Trump. He told Deadline in 2022, that he and Logan Roy shared the same disappointment in "the human experiment." When asked to elaborate he lashed out at Trump as he told the publication:

"You go, how the f*ck can this country vote for such a f*cking as*hole? And yet, this part of this country will, you know, adore him. What is it they adore? What is it they want? And how disappointing that is. "

Donald Trump was going full steam ahead in his Iowa rally before the rather unpredictable goof-up. On the day prior, he stopped at Waterloo, Iowa where he criticized Joe Biden's beach body before going on to declare that he had a better body than him.

Trump also stated that people needed to show IDs while grocery shopping and claimed that China feared him and called him 'sir' but not Biden. He also said that the Israel-Hamas attacks would not have happened if he had been president.