Trump misquotes Gandhi while rallying supporters

Donald Trump on Monday sought to quote Mahatma Gandhi in arguing that he is leading a Republican revolution.

“First they ignore you,” the Republican presidential front-runner wrote on his Instagram. “Then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

#Trump2016 #TrumpInstagram: https://t.co/tzHtny48nQ pic.twitter.com/BpKZcISeKi

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 29, 2016

{mosads}The Instagram post included a picture of hordes of supporters rallying at a Trump campaign stop in Alabama on Sunday.

There’s no record that Gandhi ever used the phrase, which has been widely attributed to him.

Instead, the quotation appears to be similar to words used in a 1918 trade union address by Nicholas Klein. 

Trump sought to quote Gandhi a day after he was criticised for re-tweeting Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini early Sunday morning.

“It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep,” he re-tweeted from a user named @ilduce2016.

Gawker claimed on Sunday that it had fooled Trump into re-tweeting Mussolini’s words by attributing them to the New York business mogul himself.

Trump, who frequently re-tweets kind words for his presidential campaign, has at times shocked Twitter users by accidentally repeating a white nationalist named “WhiteGenocideTM.”

Trump seems set for a big night Tuesday, when 11 states hold GOP contests. Trump leads the Republican field by nearly 16 points nationwide, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of samplings, and is expected to win several states on Tuesday.