Terrifying Warhammer 40,000 “God-Emperor” Trump dominates Italian parade

A gigantic likeness of President Donald Trump mashed up with the supreme master of humanity from the universe of Warhammer 40,000 towered over spectators during the Viareggio Carnevale parade in Italy last weekend.

Poking fun at America’s current Commander in Chief, the float featured Trump encased in the Emperor’s golden, gothic power-armour, replete with mechanical claw and a twitter-themed sword. The sword also featured an inscription that translates to ‘here’s your fucking tariffs’. 

The ‘God-Emperor Trump’ meme has circled the internet for some time now, having apparently been started – like most memes are – as a post on the internet forum 4Chan. The joke is essentially one of comparison; the world of Warhammer 40,000 is hardly one famed for its subtlety, being noted for its displays of ludicrously enormous scale, grandiose melodrama and over-the-top machismo. Given this, it’s not hard to see why some people would associate Trump’s sweeping pronouncements and bombastic behaviour during his time in office with the fictional setting. 

Fabrizlo Galli, the float’s creator, described the theme of the statement as follows:

“The supreme myth of having power over the whole universe. The First. God Emperor Trump. The parallelism with the dominant character of Warhammer 40,000 has never been more fitting, except that this is not a futuristic three-dimensional tabletop wargame but pure reality. Donald wants to go back to the moon, travel to Mars and create the first space army. Ultras Marines? Mega Marines? The time of intellectuals, philosophers and of old and worn culture is over. We have entered the era of fantasy, videogames and virtual life. The dominant male par-excellence has arrived, democratically, and is now here, among us. The Master-Drone flies over the Viareggio boardwalk as we prepare to pay the price.”

“It’s a joke, but in fact he's trying to destroy nations with the economy instead of nuclear missiles,” Galli told Heavy.com (presumably referring to Warhammer 40,000’s idea of Exterminatus, the destruction of an entire planet.) “This is one of the strongest actions, let’s say, that powerful people like Trump can use.”