1980s hearthrob and later-day movie star John Cusak gave Nikki Haley, the former Republican presidential contender, a public drubbing after photos were published of Haley writing messages on Israeli weapons.
The United States electorate is divided over the American response to the current war between Israel and Hamas, which controls Palestine. The militant group launched an aggressive attack against Israel on October 7, racking up 1,200 casualties—most of them civilians—and taking around 250 people hostage. The Gaza Health ministry claims that more than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli response. Multiple protests have rolled through American universities, demanding that the Biden administration call for and enforce a ceasefire. Such calls have also been echoed in the international community, including in a genocide trial in The Hague.
Haley, who served as a US ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, and has also held the governorship of South Carolina, met with survivors of the Hamas attack in Israel on May 27.
During her trip, she traveled to the northern border of Israel with Danny Danon, a member of the Knesset, who posted photos on the X platform showing Haley signing the artillery shells and writing messages such as “Finish Them!” and “America [heart] Israel” on the weapons.
Cusak was not amused. A longtime critic of Israel who has spoken out multiple times in defense of Palestine and against Israel’s retaliatory campaign, he took to the X platform to slam Haley’s conduct. His post quickly went viral. In his tweet, he used colorful language to express the view that anyone who sighed a bomb should be institutionalized, as they are, in his view, clearly insane. A series of further posts followed in which Cusak continued his slams on Haley, saying (among other things), that she was incapable of understanding “normal thinking.” He said that Haley displayed “shocking inhumanity” that was disgusting along multiple dimensions.
Haley did not directly engage, but did post reminders that Hamas started the war.
