Legendary journalist Dan Rather went viral and had social media users nodding their heads after sharing a supposed Turkish proverb about "clowns" aimed at President Donald Trump.
In recent days, the Trump administration has come under fire for the Signal chat scandal, in which top officials discussed war plans in Yemen on an unsecured server; deported a man to El Salvador and defended the move because the man had "traffic violations;" has continued to court controversy over Trump's repeated threats to annex Greenland; has further aggravated relations with Canada; and launched a global trade war that has sent markets tumbling.
Rather recently shared a post on Facebook directly addressing the chaos of Trump’s administration without even saying Trump's name.
It reads:
"When a clown moves into a palace he doesn't become a king, the palace becomes a circus."
You can see his post below.
And people loved it.
Rather has consistently
expressed strong opposition to Trump, stating that he “vehemently” opposes the former and current president and emphasizing that “it’s not about politics,” noting he has “voted for both parties.” His stance, he explained, comes from a place of patriotism, as he rejects what he called a “cheating, lying, racist, treasonous, fascist, and vile man who attacks the free press, and wants to lead the country I love.” In Rather’s words, “It’s really that simple.”
While campaigning in 2016, Trump remarked that “Second Amendment people” might act if Hillary Clinton were elected and attempted to impose gun restrictions. Rather condemned the statement, interpreting it as a “direct threat of violence against a political rival.”
In 2018, after Trump took a swipe at LeBron James and Don Lemon—tweeting that “LeBron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon” and that Lemon “made LeBron look smart, which isn’t easy to do”—Rather responded by reposting the comment. He asked whether this was really “what the President of the United States feels the need to share with the world at what should be long past his bedtime?” He also called the post “a disgrace” and “racist.”
During a 2019 panel on online extremism, Rather said Trump was wearing down the American public with what he described as an “unrelenting” barrage of social media content.
Comparing it to being caught in a storm of endless spin, Rather remarked: “I sense the public has a sense that they’re facing a manure spreader in a windstorm… It just keeps coming and coming and coming at you.” He added that it was “ridiculous,” yet deliberate— and that Trump “understands the value of that.”
