Trump Tweet Makes Ralph Waldo Emerson Great Again

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump created a Twitter sensation by quoting a line from American poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson used in a recent New York Times article, which warned that “When you strike at a king, you must kill him.”

The president on Saturday slightly misquoted both the poet and the Feb. 1 article, by Times reporter Peter Baker, but went on to add that his recent impeachment trial was “The Greatest Witch Hunt in American History!”

Trump’s comments also got #YouAreNotaKing trending on the social media site.

It was the latest element of Trump’s extended victory lap after his Feb. 5 exoneration by the Republican-controlled Senate on two charges of impeachment brought by the Democratic-led House.

The president has also moved to eject various people from his administration who testified against him in the House, and asserting that he has “the legal right” to interject himself into criminal cases at the Justice Department, throwing the agency’s reputation for impartiality into turmoil.

The New York Times article that caught Trump’s eye was headlined, “While Stained in History, Trump Will Emerge From Trial Triumphant and Unshackled.” Baker wrote -- and Trump quoted -- that Emerson, the mid-19th century intellectual, “seemed to foresee the lesson” of Trump’s impeachment trial.

Trump, Baker wrote, is ready to “take his case of grievance, persecution and resentment to the campaign trail.”

That effort is well under way, especially as the president shadows his potential 2020 opponent with campaign rallies timed to coincide with early Democratic nomination contests.

On Sunday the Daytona International Speedway will become a de facto rally site as Trump attends the annual Daytona 500 amid what’s almost certain to be a friendly crowd of NASCAR fans.

Trump is spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and was at the nearby Trump International Golf Club for much of Saturday.

(An earlier version corrected the tile of the Daytona International Speedway in the final paragraph.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Ros Krasny in Washington at rkrasny1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Ian Fisher, Linus Chua

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.