The President of the United States (Nick Offerman) plays a crucial role in Alex Garland's Civil War, but is he a Democrat or Republican?
Civil War is an A24 dystopian thriller set in an alternate reality where the United States is engulfed in a brutal civil war between Loyalists and Western Forces.
The story follows a group of journalists, led by Lee (Kirsten Dunst) and Joel (Wagner Moura), who enlist a young photojournalist (Cailee Spaeny) on a cross-country journey to interview the president as the Western Forces march on Washington, D.C.
After a successful box office run ($122.6 million globally) in early March, the film is now available for streaming on Max for subscribers as of September 13.
Is the Civil War Movie President Republican or Democrat?
In Civil War, Nick Offerman's president is portrayed as leaning toward fascism, but the film deliberately avoids specifying whether he is Republican or Democrat.
Offerman clarified to The Washington Post that his character is not based on any past president, despite what he recalls "Fox News" drawing parallels to former U.S. President Donald Trump:
"I saw one headline, I think from Fox News, that said, ‘Nick Offerman and Kirsten Dunst refuse to admit that this movie is based on Trump.' And I just thought how ironic it is. There’s truly no evidence of that hypothesis, but you are insisting that this fascist, fictional president must be based on Trump."
When asked directly by The Hollywood Reporter about the Trump comparisons, Offerman simply stated, "It honestly didn't even come up."
As it pertains to Republicans vs. Democrats, Offerman explained that Civil War is meant to be "so unrelated to any actual factions or politicians" and applauds how "this movie transcends that and has none of it:"
"It honestly didn't even come up. It's so unrelated to any actual factions or politicians...That's what I think is so brilliant about this film, is that everybody on any side of the aisle or any faction has a lot to say, and we're all immediately divisive and partisan in our conversations. Everybody's mad about those other jerks, and this movie transcends that and has none of it."
When asked a similar question by Deadline, Offerman added that "it clearly wasn’t based on anything in reality" and his focus was bringing Civil War creator Alex Garland's "vision" to life:
"From the get-go, it clearly wasn’t based on anything in reality, and so, that’s a distraction, and my job is to immediately say, 'Who is this guy? And how can I best serve Alex [Garland’s] vision.'"
In a conversation with People, Offerman pointed out "people shaking their fists at each other" after watching the trailer, but in the end, he believes "none of the things [they were] getting upset about" was in Civil War:
"It is funny because the trailer elicited so many passionate... [it] had people shaking their fists at each other, judging [it] superficially, and I thought, 'Just wait till you guys see this movie. It doesn't matter. None of the things you're getting upset about or speculating about, they're not in the movie.'"
Garland wanted the political details to remain ambiguous, emphasizing that the president’s specific affiliation doesn't matter once the chaos of civil war begins.
Offerman recalled to The Washington Post his conversation with Garland after reading the script. The actor asked if it matters whether the president is "Republican or Democrat" and he recalled that Garland responded that "the most important thing is that we don’t know:"
"I called Alex and said, ‘Okay, let me make sure I got this right. We’re not supposed to know who’s who. Also it doesn’t matter if this president is Republican or Democrat or other, right?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, the most important thing is that we don’t know.’ And I was like, ‘Great. I love that so much.'"
For those who have seen the film, it is obvious early on that the president himself is more of a figure/target, less of a present character in the film.
Civil War Movie Politics Explained
In Civil War, the United States is fractured into five distinct regions: the Western Forces, Florida Alliance, Loyalist States, and the New People's Army.
The authoritarian federal government, Offerman's Commander-in-Chief, faces widespread rebellion from secessionist movements, most notably the Western Forces, which include Texas and California.
The president's claim of imminent victory contrasts with the reality of Washington, D.C. being overrun. Civil War highlights the brutal consequences of civil unrest and the chaos of a country divided by regional powers with differing interests.
In the April 2024 issue of Total Film magazine, Garland confirmed to the outlet that he chose California and Texas as allies not to avoid accusations of political bias, but to highlight that a president bombing his own country transcends party politics.
Offerman praised this "multiverse" Garland was able to create in Civil War (via People), as it's supposed to "transcend any sort of current politics:"
"[Garland] has such an incredible perspective to sort of transcend any sort of current politics in our country or elsewhere...like an alternate reality or a multiverse...It's another timeline of here's a situation that has occurred in the near future that we could imagine in many countries on the planet."
Further honing in on Garland's specific purpose for Civil War's harsh reality, Offerman told Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso that he believes the director is "espousing neutrality" and that in the real world, no matter "who votes for whom" do U.S. citizens "want to end up in this situation:"
"He's not espousing centrism with this film, I think he's espousing neutrality. He's giving it to us through the point view of neutral journalists. You know, we see actions by different factions that was despicable, that are lawless, that are very upsetting, and I think that that is his message: That in war time lawlessness rules the day. So I believe that the film is being posited as a cautionary tale to say, no matter who is saying what about whom or who votes for whom, do we want to end up in this situation."
Although central to the film's plot, Offerman's character appears in only a few scenes, which he likened to Sauron in The Lord of the Rings (via The Washington Post).
Garland spoke to Reel Blend about Offerman's limited screen time and how the opening scene of him practicing his lines was "an experiment:"
"We had two days with Nick it was the first day of shooting and the last day of shooting. The President was supposed to be a kind of fractured, distorted voice seen sometimes on Fuzzy TV images as if they were digitally breaking apart. And then when we shot the first day, we just tried an experiment. We started imagining, what if he was practicing the lines of the speech we're later going to hear? There was just something so interesting about it, and that became the beginning of the film."
While he's meant to not be Republican or Democrat, Garland explained that this opening is meant to cause audiences to "stop trusting him" through the "almost childish hyperbole" he's spouting:
"And in various ways, there's a strange way in where you begin hearing this guy, and almost immediately, you stop trusting him. This sort of almost childish hyperbole of the way he's talking, 'The greatest history in the history of all military' or whatever."
As noted, the film's politics are intentionally vague, focusing less on Republican or Democratic ideologies and more on the breakdown of society under authoritarian rule.
Civil War is now streaming on Max.
