DeSantis Slammed by ‘Peaky Blinders’ Team for Bizarre Campaign Ad

In an ad rivaling Donald Trump’s pudding-gate attack, Ron DeSantis shared the latest bizarre campaign video to come from the GOP party. The anti-LGBTQ ad, which was rife with images of shirtless men and murderous cinema characters, was denounced by Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy and producers on Wednesday for using show footage that was “obtained without permission or official license.”

“On behalf of the partners of Peaky Blinders – Steven Knight, Cillian Murphy, Caryn Mandabach Productions, Tiger Aspect Productions and Baniay Rights – we confirm the footage of Tommy Shelby’s character used within the video posted by Ron DeSantis’ campaign was obtained without permission of official license,” the statement read. “We do not support nor endorse the vide’s narrative and strongly disapprove of the use of the content in this manner.”

The video was released on June 30 by DeSantis’s “Rapid response” twitter account, and contrasts Trump’s statements in support of the LGBTQ community with a string of headlines criticizing DeSantis for his legislative attacks on LGBTQ people. The footage is spliced with dramatic shots of murderous male characters in film including Murphy in Peaky Blinders, Christian Bale in American Psycho (seriously), and Brad Pitt in Troy. Images of bodybuilders and DeSantis shooting lightning out of his eyes are peppered in for effect.

During Sunday’s State of the Union on CNN, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was asked about the ad, which drew condemnation from the Log Cabin Republicans for “ventur[ing] into homophobic territory.”

“I’m going to choose my words carefully — partly because I’m appearing as secretary — so I can’t talk about campaigns,” began Buttigieg, the first openly gay Cabinet member.

He added, “I’m going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled-up, shirtless bodybuilders, and just get to the bigger issue that is on my mind whenever I see this stuff in the policy space, which is, again, who are you trying to help?”

DeSantis, who has been hellbent on punishing Disney after it opposed the state’s anti-LGBTQ legislation, attempted to defend the trailer on OutKick’s “Tomi Lahren is Fearless” show, which is owned by Fox.

“Yeah look, I think identifying Donald Trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream, where he was having men compete against women in his beauty pageants, I think that’s totally fair game,” DeSantis said.

Despite the Florida governor’s attempts to shade his 2024 rival, DeSantis has repeatedly jumped to Trump’s defense amid criminal charges brought by the Justice Department. The former president, on the other hand, has handed dig after dig against “Ron DeSanctimonious,” who he singled out as his principal nemesis.

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