'House Of Cards' Creator: Bin Laden Wanted Trump's America

The creator and showrunner of the popular Netflix political drama House of Cards, Beau Willimon, believes Osama bin Laden would've wanted Trump's America. In a series of 32 tweets published on Friday, Willimon recalled the responses the American public and government had to the Sept. 11 attacks and how the country's grief was manipulated to justify the subsequent war in Iraq. He went on to argue that while Obama's effectiveness in stabilizing the Middle East is debatable and worthy of criticism, President Trump and his surrogates present a dangerous future for both the region and the rest of the world.

"Trump and Bannon, however - have no such aim [for peace and security]," he tweeted. "Their goal has been to build upon fear in order to justify their extreme agenda. They will say 'peace' and 'security', but they are deliberately stoking increased animosity between the U.S. and the Muslim world. Bannon has publicly said that he foresees a great holy war between Christians and Muslims. Sound familiar? That is exactly what Bin Laden hoped to accomplish with terrorist tactics. A Holy War."

The Bannon comment in question took place at a 2014 conference at the Vatican, where he said, "We’re at the very beginning stages of a very brutal and bloody conflict." He went on to tell the Christian crowd that if they did not "bind together and really form what I feel is an aspect of the church militant" to fight against "this new barbarity," they should expect to see everything they'd been "bequeathed over the last 2,000, 2,500 years" be completely eradicated.

Bin Laden similarly spoke of a holy war between the Muslim world and the West to his followers.

Vladimir Putin, Willimon argued, will exploit Trump and Bannon's thirst for war in hopes of seeing the "massive destabilization of the West."

Willimon has been an active opponent of Trump for months. One day after Election Day, he launched Action Group Network, a system to keep activist-minded people informed on action groups in their areas. More recently, after Trump publicly accused Barack Obama of wiretapping him during the election, Willimon asked Twitter to delete the president's account. "His tweets recklessly bypass diplomatic channels without consultation from the State Department, IC or the Pentagon," he wrote. "Even as a private citizen it is arguable that he has violated Twitter rules regarding violent threats, harassment and hateful conduct."

Willimon ended his Friday series of tweets by motivating his followers to keep resisting Trump's presidency. "We can be the nation that came together after 9/11," he wrote. "Who welcomed the support of our friends abroad and valued their humanity. We can lead by example again rather than following the script of terrorists & dictators. But only if WE the people lead. #Resist."