In a Saturday morning tweet, Donald Trump appears to approvingly quote a New York Times “news analysis” that described his 2020 presidential campaign as focusing on his own “case of grievance, persecution and resentment.”
In the same Twitter post, as quoted by MediaIte , Trump appeared to refer to himself as a “king.” The New York Times article cited by Trump contained one of the most famous quotes by 19th century American philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, in which Emerson said the following.
“When you strike at a king, you must kill him.”
The citation was intended as a reference to the recently completed impeachment proceedings against Trump, which ended in his acquittal by the United States Senate, on a largely party-line vote. Only one Republican, Utah’s Mitt Romney, voted to convict Trump. But Romney voted to convict on only one of the two articles of impeachment against Trump.
In his first tweet following the acquittal vote, as The Inquisitr reported, Trump also appeared to take on the mantle of a king, posting a meme that portrayed him as remaining in office for life — or as the meme put it, “4Eva.”
The Times news analysis article also made an unusual citation for Trump to reference in a tweet, in that the headline described Trump, following his impeachment, as “stained in history.”
The Times article was penned by reporter Peter Baker, the paper’s chief White House correspondent. In referencing the Emerson quote, Baker noted that Trump’s “foes struck at him but did not take him down,” and went on to describe Trump as “triumphant” following his impeachment acquittal.
The passage quoted on the @realDonaldTrump Twitter account went on to say that the “emboldened” Trump would now feel free to “take his case of grievance, persecution and resentment to the campaign trail.”
Trump, in his tweet, followed the lengthy excerpt from Baker’s article — an excerpt that covered two successive tweets on Trump’s timeline — by stating his own oft-repeated claim, that he is the victim of “The Greatest Witch Hunt In American History!”
Baker was far from the first political analyst to describe Trump’s campaign and oratorical style, and centering on “grievance.” A description by The Los Angeles Times referred to a statement to reporters last October, during a cabinet meeting led by Trump, as “71 minutes of Trump grievances.”
And in December, a Northwestern University psychology professor, Dan McAdams, stated his view that Trump posts “vitriolic, grievance-filled tweets” on a daily basis. McAdams’ statement followed a seven-page letter from Trump to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that, the psychologist noted, contained numerous such grievances.
