Mel Gibson Saluted Donald Trump At UFC 264 As If He Were A Paratrooper Returning Home From Storming Normandy On D-Day

There was a brief period, some five years back, when the world gave Mel Gibson yet another chance. He was even Oscar-nominated for directing a hit film. But people soon remembered what got the former A-list actor “canceled” in the first place: He has some, shall we say, controversial opinions. And so, few were surprised on Monday when video surfaced of him not only warmly greeting the even more divisive Donald J. Trump, but actually saluting him.

The former Mad Max was one of a number of celebrities who attended the UFC fight between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirer on Saturday night. Justin Bieber was there. So was Jared Leto. The Paul brothers. So was the 45th president, who the following evening would brag to a crowd of hooting Republicans that he was impeached twice.

Gibson wisely steered clear of politics during the Trump administration, perhaps sensing that he didn’t need to give people another reason to hate his guts. But on Saturday, as the fuzzy video shows, he apparently couldn’t contain himself, flamboyantly honoring a man accused of encouraging his supporters to violently storm the Capitol and attempt to overturn an election he lost.

But given his many other beliefs, people weren’t surprised that Gibson may be a Trump stan.

Others found the salute weird. (Neither man, incidentally, ever served in the U.S. military, and the latter was quoted calling soldiers who died for their country “losers” and “suckers.”)

Even seeing his name trending, people assumed things weren’t great.

Thus concludes yet another in a long series of disappointing discoveries for people who thought his take on Hamlet wasn’t that bad.