ASSOCIATED PRESS The man who would be king.

President Donald Trump compared himself to a king Saturday with a quote by American philosopher and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson warning: “When you strike at a king, you must kill him.”

Trump actually wrote “the king.”

Critics went wild.

Trump picked the quote in a tweet from a piece in The New York Times early this month warning that the angry, vengeful president would be dangerously unleashed once Senate Republicans acquitted him in the impeachment trial.

For extra measure after the Emerson quote, Trump added: “The Greatest Witch Hunt in American history!”

“Ralph Waldo Emerson seemed to foresee the lesson of the Senate Impeachment Trial of President Trump. ‘When you strike at the King, Emerson famously said, “you must kill him.’ Mr. Trump’s foes struck at him but did not take him down. A triumphant Mr.Trump emerges from the..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2020

.....biggest test of his presidency emboldened, ready to claim exoneration, and take his case of grievance, persecution and resentment to the campaign trail.” Peter Baker @nytimes The Greatest Witch Hunt In American History! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2020

“You’re no king” almost instantly trended on Twitter. (A version of that rejoinder included “Fool, you ain’t no king.”) Several people pointed out to the president that the Times article was scathingly negative about him and an unusual one for him to promote.

The king quote was part of a number of wild tweets from the president before he headed out for another weekend of golf — at his course in West Palm Beach. (In a particularly sophomoric communication, Trump retweeted a five-year-old videotape of the accidentally recorded bathroom sounds of a Texas mayor. The tweet came from an anti-Trump account.)

But it was the king quote in a nation that threw off a king that really got critics going. Walter Shaub, former head of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, responded flatly: “You’re not king.” Trump biographer Tim O’Brien, now a senior campaign adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, noted that Trump finally said the “quiet thing out loud: ‘I am a King.’”

When you say the quiet thing out loud:



“I am a King.” https://t.co/QbqoEftnS4 — Tim O'Brien (@TimOBrien) February 15, 2020

To attorney George Conway, the anti-Trump spouse of White House counsel Kellyanne Conway, the tweet confirmed what he has claimed all along: that the president is an out-of-control narcissist.

So in essence: He’s admitting that he’s running on a platform of unrestrained narcissism. https://t.co/igvXAxjJ7P — George Conway (@gtconway3d) February 15, 2020

Former federal prosecutor and Michigan law professor Barbara McQuade was chilled by the tweet, calling it possibly Trump’s “most sinister.”

This may be the most sinister tweet Trump has ever posted. He is comparing himself with a king and threatening to use his powers for revenge on those who questioned his abuse of power. This after AG Barr said Trump’s tweets make it hard for him to do his job. Any response Mr. AG? https://t.co/SKEHnbGLOs — Barb McQuade (@BarbMcQuade) February 15, 2020

Christine Pelosi, daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tweeted that far from being a king, Trump is nothing more than an “impeached4life man who wants to draw everyone else into his hate and fury.”

For every minute you are angry you lose 60 seconds of happiness. - Ralph Waldo Emerson



He is not a king / he is an angry #impeached4life man who wants to draw everyone else into his hate and fury. #Resist. Find your joy. Organize for change and #VoteHimOut!#SaturdayThoughts — Christine Pelosi (@sfpelosi) February 15, 2020

10 days post-impeachment & he thinks he’s the king. https://t.co/nNY3PfAmWz — Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) February 15, 2020

So there it is, pronouncing himself the King, and misusing an Emerson quote (about Plato).



As if he knew who Ralph Waldo Emerson was, not to mention Plato. — Michelangelo Signorile (@MSignorile) February 15, 2020

#YouAreNotAKing // What a real King looks like in America: pic.twitter.com/r8rH1Md7xl — Diana Butler Bass (@dianabutlerbass) February 15, 2020