Armin Shimerman Talks Trek Against Trump

Although Donald Trump is doing a pretty good job himself of making sure he doesn’t get elected as President in November, a number of Star Trek alumni have recently been speaking out against the Republican candidate.

The campaign – Trek Against Trump – launched at the end of September, and now has around 150 cast and crew members on board. And it started, somewhat surprisingly, with an actor best known for playing another orange-skinned capitalist: Armin Shimerman.

We caught up with the actor at Destination Star Trek and asked him what prompted the campaign:

“Politics in our country has got a little scary. A lot of us standing on stage were getting concerned about how close the polls were getting between the two candidates and I was the first person in the community to take a step forward and say ‘maybe we should speak about this’.”

“And although I started the campaign most of the people on this stage right now were very helpful. It’s a community effort. It wasn’t done by one person in particular, like Star Trek. Star Trek is about teamwork, it’s about a group of people working together as a team, and we, in fact, worked as a team to do that. We’re hoping to add to the national conversation.”

The following day, Shimerman gave a more light-heated response about Trump. Asked during the convention’s Deep Space Nine panel what his alter ego Quark would make of Trump, the actor replied: “I don’t think even Quark would like Trump. He isn’t a very good businessman”.

The campaign is based on Facebook, where its missions statement reads: “Star Trek has always offered a positive vision of the future, a vision of hope and optimism, and most importantly, a vision of inclusion, where people of all races are accorded equal respect and dignity, where individual beliefs and lifestyles are respected so long as they pose no threat to others. We cannot turn our backs on what is happening in the upcoming election. Never has there been a presidential candidate who stands in such complete opposition to the ideals of the Star Trek universe as Donald Trump. His election would take this country backward, perhaps disastrously. We need to elect a president who will move this country forward into the kind of future we all dream of: where personal differences are understood and accepted, where science overrules superstition, where people work together instead of against each other”.

The impressive list of endorsements includes cast and crew from every incarnation of Trek, including (deep breath): J. J. Abrams, René Auberjonois, Scott Bakula, Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, LeVar Burton, John Cho, Denise Crosby, John de Lancie, Michael Dorn, Harlan Ellison, Terry Farrell, Jonathan Frakes, Bryan Fuller, Greg Grunberg, Dominic Keating, Walter Koenig, Alex Kurtzman, Gates McFadden, Robert Duncan McNeill, Nicholas Meyer, Kate Mulgrew, Michael and Denise Okuda, Linda Park, Simon Pegg, Ethan Phillips, Robert Picardo, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Tim Russ, Zoe Saldana, Brent Spiner, Marina Sirtis, George Takei, Connor Trinneer, Karl Urban, and Wil Wheaton.

Despite large numbers of endorsements, two of Trek’s biggest names – William Shatner and Patrick Stewart – are absent from the list. Stewart’s spoken out against Trump on more than one occasion, and Shatner, a Canadian citizen, has previously stated that he doesn’t like to comment on US politics.

You can find Trek Against Trump on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/TrekAgainstTrumpOfficial/ and on Twitter @TrekNotTrump.

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