Donald Trump criticised for attributing quote to Mahatma Gandhi
The Republican presidential candidate shared a photograph of his rally on Instagram along with a phrase that is often misattributed to the freedom fighter, according to reports.
Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump courted controversy yet again on Monday. In an Instagram post that showed supporters at his campaign rally in the state of Alabama in the United States, he wrote, “First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win – Mahatma Gandhi.” The real estate mogul’s attribution of the quote to Gandhi drew criticism from American media, who questioned its authenticity.
The Hill, a top political website in the United States, said, “There is no record that Gandhi ever used the phrase, which has been widely attributed to him.” Christian Science Monitor ranked the phrase among the top 10 political misquotes. There was no immediate response from Trump's campaign on the matter, PTI reported. The previous day, Trump had unknowingly retweeted a quote by Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini.
According to Wikiquotes, this phrase is often misattributed to Gandhi and that a “close variant” was quoted by American trade unionist Nicholas Klein in 1918. Klein had said: “And, my friends, in this story you have a history of this entire movement. First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you. And that is what is going to happen to the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.”
