Donald Trump Just Compared Himself to Gandhi


After approvingly retweeting a quote from Benito Mussolini this weekend, Donald Trump on Monday invoked the words of another famous political leader in support of his campaign: Mahatma Gandhi. Trump, the GOP front-runner who has promised to build a wall to keep Mexican people out of the United States, floated the idea of a national registry for Muslim Americans, and suggested killing the families of terrorists, would seem to share little in common with the legendary anti-war activist who led India’s independence movement against British rule. Then again, both Trump and Gandhi made some pretty outlandish claims about black people.

Trump’s usage of this quote is not only strange because of the implied comparison; it’s also a misquote. Gandhi never said that. Rather, socialist leader Nicholas Klein did

This post has been updated to reflect that Trump misquoted Mahatma Gandhi.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate