It looks like Donald Trump’s careless retweeting has caught up to him again, this time sharing a tweet with his over 6 million followers from what looks like a Benito Mussolini parody account designed to mock Donald Trump.
The account — @ilduce2016 — not only includes Mussolini’s nickname in the handle, but also has a picture of Mussolini with Trump’s hair as its avatar. All the tweets sent by @ilduce2016 are actually quotes from the Italian fascist, but list Donald Trump as the source:
“It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” – @realDonaldTrump #MakeAmericaGreatAgain
— ilduce2016 (@ilduce2016) February 28, 2016
Trump then retweeted it, apparently not catching that he was quoting from an account designed to mock him:
"@ilduce2016: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” – @realDonaldTrump #MakeAmericaGreatAgain"
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2016
And Tweeters piled on:
Er, Donald, that quote is from Mussolini. But “Don’t be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi Party” isn’t. https://t.co/gNBbxGdxOG
— Stephen Mangan (@StephenMangan) February 28, 2016
Trump quoting Mussolini. Really. https://t.co/LHtd9aEM36
— Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) February 28, 2016
https://twitter.com/NKingofDC/status/703927624565919744
That's an actual Mussolini quote he's RTing from "Il Duce 2016" pic.twitter.com/jDaGw04p3G
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) February 28, 2016
Trump retweets Mussolini quote. Weird times. https://t.co/hhpna2BvYR
— Brian Groom (@GroomB) February 28, 2016
https://twitter.com/timothypmurphy/status/703912011973959680
Donald Trump just re-tweeted a parody account depicting him as Mussolini, with one of Il Duce's best-known quotes https://t.co/pXWuPZiv4F
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 28, 2016
Amtrak will run on time… https://t.co/kBr5uozBUn
— Tony Trimboli (@TonyTrimboli) February 28, 2016
Screenshot for if/when it gets deleted:
Update. Gawker is taking credit for the Mussolini parody account:
We built a Mussolini-quoting Twitter bot to see if @realDonaldTrump was dumb enough to retweet it. He was! Sad!! https://t.co/n0m2eTTAhv
— Gawker (@Gawker) February 28, 2016
Oof.
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