Even though The Boys is filled with super-powered people in capes, the show has never felt more like real life than with the release of season 5. Set a year after Homelander (Antony Starr) took over America and unleashed an authoritarian regime, The Boys season 5 shows the protagonists rallying together to find a way to kill the evil Supe.
The Boys has long satirized American society and politics, addressing issues such as misinformation in the media, corporate influence on politics, and fascism disguised as patriotism. The Boys’ official X account has even joked that the show is a documentary rather than a satire.
However, the show has displayed so many similarities to recent real-world events that it’s as if the writers had a crystal ball. The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke said in an interview that the parallels between Homelander’s authoritarian America and our current America were coincidental, saying that season 5 was written before the 2024 election.
Nevertheless, The Boys has only proven itself more timely than ever a year into the second Trump Administration.
Homelander and Donald Trump
Homelander has become an even greater stand-in for Donald Trump with his actions in The Boys season 5. Now that Homelander is in charge of the U.S., he has amassed an army of loyal Supes to lock the heroes and any suspected “Starlighters” in Vought’s Freedom Camps. Homelander’s actions are similar to how Trump has had ICE agents take people suspected of being illegal immigrants from their homes and off the streets, locking them up in corporate-owned detention centers.
Homelander even has Vought monitor everyone’s social media activity to find and arrest potential Starlighters, which is basically anyone who likes Starlight or doesn’t like him. This is much like how ICE has used Palantir’s AI technology to conduct mass surveillance online and collect people’s data in order to find, track, and deport suspected illegal immigrants.
In his pursuit of absolute control, Homelander even pardoned Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) for his previous crimes in exchange for his services as a member of the Seven. This parallels Trump pardoning multiple people involved in the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol Building after he returned to office.
The insecure Homelander has also said in season 5 that posting memes making fun of him should be a crime. This is much like how Trump has attacked journalists and freedom of speech itself, saying in September 2025 that negative coverage of him and his administration should be “really illegal.”
On top of all that, in episode 3, Homelander reveals his plan to make himself into an immortal god by injecting himself with V-One, hoping to be worshipped like Jesus Christ. By sheer coincidence, this scene came just days after Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ, which many people criticized as “blasphemy.”
Even with all the horrible, outlandish things he does and says, Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) said Homelander still has the support of the billionaires as long as their share prices stay high.
Meanwhile, in the real-life 2024 election, Trump had the financial support of billionaires like Elon Musk after such a divisive first term, with 13 of these billionaire donors later joining Trump’s cabinet. After the election, Trump received more donations from billionaires like Musk, as well as companies like Amazon and Meta, with the latter’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, reporting market share gains and higher profits at the end of 2024 while commending Trump’s support for the company.
As the heroes have tried to expose Homelander to the world, we’re easily reminded of the years-long attempt to have Trump impeached and arrested. The first episode of season 5 shows Annie (Erin Moriarty) leaking footage of the Flight 37 incident from season 1, in which Homelander let a plane filled with civilians crash.
However, Sister Sage quickly brushes the evidence aside, labeling it a deepfake that’s part of an “AI-generated disinformation campaign” against Homelander. This shows how easily the truth can be brushed aside today as new technology blurs the line between reality and fiction.
The toxic culture of Homelander’s America
The Boys has long explored how corrupt leaders have used religion to promote extreme, bigoted policies and to gain wealth and power. In season 2, Alastair Adana (Goran Visnjic) used his cult, the Church of the Collective, to manipulate and blackmail celebrities and politicians. We also saw the hypocritical Ezekiel (Shaun Benson) denounce homosexuality as a Capes for Christ preacher.
The show’s commentary has grown more pronounced in recent seasons, just as the real U.S. has seen a spike in Christian nationalism in American politics. In season 5, characters like Firecracker (Valorie Curry) and Oh Father (Daveed Diggs) are shown using their faith to appeal to the public, promote hate speech, and attack the opposition. Specifically, in episode 2, we hear the latter promoting outlandish Satanic and transphobic conspiracies about the Starlighters.
Likewise, The Boys tackles the controversial age of social media by introducing Vought’s team of influencers, Teenage Kix. This team of Supes appeals to Vought’s younger demographics with TikTok videos promoting makeup and drinking products, even when they’re arresting an innocent woman and separating her from her child.
This may seem like an extreme bit of satire. But remember, ICE has used social media to promote its mass deportation agenda in controversial ways. We’ve seen ICE share things like footage of ICE making arrests with Sabrina Carpenter singing in the background and an AI-generated Santa Claus rounding up immigrants.
The Boys season 5 also continues the show’s exploration of misogyny and toxic masculinity in American culture. Specifically, the ever-chauvinistic Deep (Chace Crawford) now hosts a “Men’s Lives Matter” podcast with Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell). This reflects how communities within the manosphere have been amplified in recent years thanks to prominent online figures like Joe Rogan and Andrew Tate.
A study published in theInternational Journal of Sport Policy and Politics found that the online manosphere contributed to Trump’s re-election in 2024, as he attracted more young male voters than in 2020 after appealing to this demographic with appearances on popular “bro influencer” podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience. Thus, we also see Vought and the Seven appeal to the manosphere to promote Homelander’s political agenda.
The ways that real-world America has become similar to Homelander’s new world show how the things that the series tried to warn audiences about have come to fruition. We’re no longer looking through the Looking Glass. Instead, we’re looking at a near-perfect mirror of our own dark reality. As a result, many people can relate to the struggles that the show’s protagonists face as they try to make things right in an increasingly bleak world.
