title:  This Explains A Lot: Donald Trump’s Son Says He Gets His Political Views From A Michael Bay Movie
text: Director Michael Bay is perhaps best known for his over-the-top, CGI-crazy  Transformers  movies. He regularly deals in the kind of popcorn action flicks that allows an audience to turn their brains off and just go along for a ride. Or, if your Eric Trump, son of Donald, Michael Bay can change your life.Over Memorial Day weekend, Eric came across Michael Bay s Republican-friendly take on the Benghazi  scandal  called  13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi . It blew his mind.Eric Trump and his wife, Lara, apparently spent part of the Memorial Day weekend watching the Benghazi flick, which Trump s son said made him  literally livid. I think in order to vote in this next election, you should have to watch that movie. I was livid,  Trump said.  She left these guys on a rooftop in the middle of Benghazi getting shot at, having mortars drop on their head because she wouldn t pick up a phone call in the middle of the night. Like father, like son. Donald Trump has routinely slammed Hillary Clinton s response to Benghazi by pushing the conspiracy theory that claimed she ignored her phone when the frantic embassy staff tried to get help. This is an idea that Michael Bay   whose own political views oscillate between ultra-conservative and slow-motion shots of American flags waving in the wind   reinforced in his movie by adding a feckless bureaucrat character whose sole purpose in the story was to get in the way of the light beer drinking patriots driving to save the embassy. In a scathing review of the film, critic Jason Bailey at Flavorwire aptly summed up the  cartoon bullshit  Bay tried to pass for political messaging. It s like catnip for conservatives.In fact, the film s real villains aren t the faceless, nameless Libyans attacking these outposts; it s the pencil-pushing, weaselly base chief (David Constabile), who insults and obstructs our heroes at every turn.  We have the best and brightest minds from Harvard and Yale,  he tells newbie Jack (John Krasinski), of the agents on their base, so  the best thing for you is to stay out of their way.  Fuckin  smart people, am I right? He also, of course, insists there s no danger to be found, and orders the team to stand down and wait after they get word of the attack on Ambassador Stevens   a detail refuted by a GOP-controlled congressional committee, as reported by Fox News, but there I go getting political.Of course, basing your political views on Michael Bay s portrayal of a contentious event means you are inevitably going to miss some stuff: Like many of the facts. Here s how Factcheck.org ruled on the accusation that Clinton was AWOL in the immediate aftermath of the attacks:Trump is entitled to his opinion about Clinton s response to the Benghazi attack, but the evidence shows Clinton was fully engaged in the immediate response. And subsequent congressional investigations concluded the government response to the attack   including Clinton s   was appropriate. Clinton testified that even after she went home that night, she remained awake all night, engaged and focused on the situation. Since there is no way to independently verify that, we ll let readers decide for themselves, but we would note Trump has not provided any evidence to contradict Clinton s account.Both Donald and Eric are wrong. And wrong in ways that only people who routinely get their news from tabloids and right-wing chain emails can be. Even a cursory look into the actual details of what went on during the Benghazi attacks would show a situation that was far more nuanced and tragic than the black-and-white nonsense they are describing. Ironically, it s this very ham-fisted attempt to lash out at Hillary Clinton that truly does a disservice to the three Americans that died at the embassy. Their deaths are being used by the Trump family to service Donald s agenda. There is nothing more despicable than that.Featured image via Joe Raedle/Getty Images