National Review Editor Outraged Trump Wasn’t Made President Of Earth on Star Trek But Stacey Abrams Was, How Is That Even Fair?

Grown adult National Review Editor Jack Butler expressed outrage that former President Donald Trump would never be made president of Star Trek’s United Earth, but Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams was granted that honor.

Viewers of this week’s season finale of Star Trek: Discovery got to witness Trek history, as Ms. Abrams made a guest-starring appearance as the POTUE, or President of the United Earth.

Without spoiling the plot, President Abrams is greeted by a coterie of Starfleet and Federation luminaries that includes Sonequa Martin-Green’s Captain Michael Burnham, the first Black woman to captain a Trek show.

It was a dream come true for Abrams, an avowed Trekkie who proved her mettle as the runaway champion of a Trek trivia competition at a virtual campaign event for soon-to-be President (of part of Earth) Joe Biden that included 19 past and present Star Trek cast members. It was a delight for her co-stars, and for many fans.

But it just didn’t sit right with Butler, who penned a commentary for his site entitled “Stacey Abrams Does Not Deserve to Be President of Earth.”

Butler makes his case by first comparing Abrams’ objections to the outcome of her last governor’s race to Trump’s Big Lie, a comparison that Abrams has repeatedly rejected. Yet Abrams is rewarded with a 32nd century presidency, and Trump — who knows what Star Trek has him doing in the year 3124 or whenever?

Would Star Trek ever dream of making Donald Trump “President of Earth”? And I don’t mean in the way that the evil genetic superman Khan Noonien Singh once despotically ruled one-quarter of earth’s population. In classic Trek fashion, Abrams is shown as the logical and inevitable result of the kind of technocratic progressivism that the show has long advanced, a fruition of our highest ideals. Her behavior in the political sphere does not seem to bear this out. Apart from the election denial, there was this infamous photo, showing her reveling in the disparity of being maskless while surrounded by masked children. Given this, why hold her up as a model?

Or maybe she’s a huge fan who the producers thought would do a good job, as showrunner Michelle Paradise told Deadline:

We knew that she was a fan of the show and of Trek in general, and for us, there was no one better to be that President. Alex and I reached out to her, and she was kind enough to get on a Zoom with us. We pitched her the very basics of that part of the season – just that Earth would rejoin (she didn’t want spoilers, so we shared just enough to give her context) – and then talked to her about who this character is and what she represents. We asked if she’d be interested and she was kind enough to say yes. It was just an amazing thing. She did such an incredible job, it was a privilege for all of us to get to work with her, and we’re so grateful she joined us for that.

But who knows what next season has in store. Maybe some 21st-century political figure will be thawed out or escape a holodeck to make Butler’s dream of a fictional second Trump term a reality.

Watch Abrams’ guest turn above via Paramount+.