President Trump on Saturday tweeted a New York Times article with a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote about going after the “king,” quickly prompting the phrase “you are not a king” to trend on social media.
Trump shared several lines from a Feb. 1 analysis piece titled “While Stained in History, Trump Will Emerge From Trial Triumphant and Unshackled,” written by the Times’s chief White House correspondent, Peter Baker.
“Ralph Waldo Emerson seemed to foresee the lesson of the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump. ‘When you strike at a king,’ Emerson famously said, ‘you must kill him,’” read the opening lines from the article Trump quoted. “Mr. Trump’s foes struck at him but did not take him down.”
Published before the Senate voted to acquit Trump of two articles of impeachment, Baker wrote that “a triumphant Mr. Trump emerges from the biggest test of his presidency emboldened, ready to claim exoneration and take his case of grievance, persecution and resentment to the campaign trail.”
“The Greatest Witch Hunt In American History!” the president added at the end of his tweet.
Baker’s article noted that while Trump’s impeachment in the House will be a stain on his record, he will become the first impeached U.S. president to run for reelection.
“Now Mr. Trump, who has said that the Constitution ‘allows me to do whatever I want’ and pushed so many boundaries that curtailed past presidents, has little reason to fear the legislative branch nor any inclination to reach out in conciliation,” Baker wrote.
Shortly after Trump quoted the piece, the phrase “you are not a king” began trending in the United States, with more than 17,000 tweets as of 11 a.m.
Some Twitter users noted that Trump appeared to tweak the phrasing of the New York Times article, changing the Emerson quote from “when you strike at a king” to read “when you strike the King” in his tweet.
Christine Pelosi, the daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), shared another quote by Emerson: “For every minute you are angry you lose 60 seconds of happiness.”
“He is not a king / he is an angry #impeached4life man who wants to draw everyone else into his hate and fury,” Christine Pelosi wrote. “#Resist. Find your joy. Organize for change and #VoteHimOut!”