Former Navy pilot brands Ron DeSantis ‘Top Gun’ advert ‘pathetic’

‘This tough guy act is pathetic’, says veteran

A former US Navy pilot has condemned Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis over a recent campaign advert apparently inspired by 1980s American action film Top Gun and its more recent sequel.

Ken Harbaugh, who once flew US Navy reconnaissance missions over the western Pacific and Middle East, said Mr Desantis had been guilty of “Navy pilot cosplay” and of “appropriating the honour of others” in an advert playing on the US Navy and Top Gun film.

“We all knew guys like that in the Navy who pretended to be something they weren’t,” said Mr Harbaugh in a video released by MeidasTouch, the progressive political action committee, on Tuesday. “We did a pretty good job putting them in their place. In that spirit, I think Ron DeSantis is due for a call sign upgrade, or maybe a downgrade.”

Suggestions from Twitter readers read aloud by Mr Harbaugh as a replacement for “Top Gov” included Panhandle Putin, Manatee and Mo-Ron, in apparent reference to the Russian president, Florida’s marine wildlife and the Republican’s intelligence.

Mr DeSantis appeared in the recently released advert titled “Top Gov” wearing an aviator jacket and shades while conducting “Top Gov” recruits on the rules of being a good Republican governor. (The 1986 film follows a class of elite US Navy trainee pilots, in comparison).

“Now, unlike Ron Desantis I didn’t pick this jacket up at Party City,” Harbaugh said in reference to the US retailer.

The veteran Navy pilot carried on by saying that while “Ron DeSantis was a lawyer in the Navy”, there was “nothing wrong with that until you start strutting down the flight line wearing aviator shades and pretending to be a bad ass.”

“This tough guy act is pathetic, especially from someone like Ron DeSantis,” Mr Harbuagh added in the video. “I earned these wings. I flew intel missions in the Middle East and the Pacific, I was a mission commander of a combat reconnaissance crew, (and) the men and women I led wore their wings proudly.”

“This campaign ad from Ron DesSntis is just one more example of a Republican politician appropriating the honour of others because he has none,” he concluded. “This is not cosplay governor, you missed the entire point of what our service stood for.”

Whilst being touted as a potential 2024 presidential contender, Mr DeSantis is running for reelection as governor this November, when he will face Florida congressman Charlie Crist, who won the Democratic nomination on Tuesday.

Mr DeSantis has increasingly come under fire for attacking LGBT+ students in Florrda as well as his “anti-woke rhetoric”, although polls currently suggest he will be reelected.