Donald Trump is known to many opponents as the troll in the Oval Office, but the woman he beat for the most powerful seat in the world seems to have learned something from his willingness to tweet provocative pictures and memes.
On Sunday afternoon Hillary Clinton tweeted a mocked-up letter from John F Kennedy to Nikita Khrushchev that was meant squarely to mock a real letter from Trump to Recep Tayyip Erdogan that was revealed to the public this week.
"Found in the archives," Clinton wrote, over an image of what purported to be a letter from President John F Kennedy to the Soviet leader on October 16th, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
White House confirms authenticity of Trump letter to Erdogan, dated 10/9: “History... will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don’t happen. Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool! I will call you later.”
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) 16 October 2019
First reported by Fox Business. pic.twitter.com/lImxfhb2j1
Found in the archives... pic.twitter.com/iFFeqloYHM
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) 20 October 2019
“Dear Premier Khrushchev,” the “letter” began. “Don’t be a dick, OK?”
Trump’s letter to Erdogan, in which he urged the authoritarian Turkish president who has invaded northern Syria “Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool!”, met with widespread disbelief, not least for its strikingly unpresidential tone.
"Turkish presidential sources" told the BBC that Erdogan "received the letter, thoroughly rejected it and put it in the bin". A Russian government spokesman told reporters: "You don't often encounter such language in correspondence between heads of state."
The letter was widely mocked and parodied. But, like any presidential communication, it may still end up in the US national archives, alongside the writings of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. The comparison may not be flattering.
It was not immediately clear if Clinton’s parody letter was an existing social-media image or had been created by her aides.
It continued: “Get your missiles out of Cuba. Everybody will say, ‘Yay, Khrushchev! You’re the best!’ But if you don’t everybody will be like ‘what an asshole’ and call your garbage country ‘The Soviet Bunion’.
“You’re really busting my nuts here. Give you a jingle later. Hugs, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.”
For most of the weekend before Clinton's intervention, Trump was uncharacteristically restrained on Twitter. He remained at the White House rather than playing golf, but his most impactful missives to his followers concerned his humiliating U-turn on hosting the next G7 summit at his own Florida golf club.
Trump did not immediately respond to Clinton’s tweet. Users did not have to look far, though, to see what might be on the way. In September 2017 Trump greeted the impending publication of Clinton’s campaign memoir, What Happened, by tweeting a meme of the former first lady, senator and secretary of state being hit on the head by a golf ball. – Guardian
