Former Navy Pilot Rips ‘Pathetic’ Ron DeSantis Over ‘Top Gun’ Stunt

A former U.S. Navy pilot is calling out Ron DeSantis for his new “Top Gun”-themed campaign ad in which the Republican Florida governor calls himself “Top Gov.”

“It’s not just cringey,” said Ken Harbaugh. “It’s literally Navy pilot cosplay.”

In the widely mocked ad, DeSantis donned aviator shades and a bomber jacket and plopped into what appeared to be the pilot’s seat of a fighter jet as he talked about taking on the “corporate media.”

Harbaugh, a former Navy pilot and host of the “Burn the Boats” podcast, showed off his own jacket in a video posted by progressive PAC MeidasTouch.

“Now, unlike Ron DeSantis, I didn’t pick this jacket up at Party City,” Harbaugh said. “These are actual pilot wings.”

Harbaugh noted that while DeSantis did serve in the Navy, it was as an attorney.

“Nothing wrong with that,” Harbaugh said. “Until you start strutting around the flight line wearing aviator shades and pretending to be a badass.”

“This tough guy act is pathetic, especially from someone like Ron DeSantis. This campaign ad from Ron DeSantis is just one more example of a Republican politician appropriating the honor of others because he has none.”

Harbaugh concluded by giving DeSantis a new callsign: Wedge or “the simplest tool known to man.”

See his full response below: