President Donald Trump spoke at a rally in El Paso, Texas, Monday night, to supposedly highlight the successes that a border wall brought to the community there.
While Trump has touted the decline of violent crime in the Texas border city, others have suggested that crime had gone down long before a border wall was propped up there. In fact, violent crime went up after the border wall was erected, per previous reporting from Hill Reporter.
Trump’s speech was chock-full of inaccuracies — but people who viewed his speech took the commander-in-chief to task for another notable reason: for seemingly plagiarizing his former rival.
“We’re only getting stronger together,” Trump told rally-goers on Monday.
If that line sounded familiar, it’s because that was Clinton’s slogan in the 2016 presidential campaign. It was also the title of a book she wrote with her running mate, current Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, reported HuffPost.
The Republican National Committee seemed to be on-board with Trump’s use of the slogan, as they later tweeted out an image of Trump’s words, which again were taken directly from Clinton’s campaign just over two years ago.
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Ib5BUTCptO
— GOP (@GOP) February 12, 2019
Twitter users were fast to point out the use of the catch phrase.
Really Donald Trump, you're using Hillary Clinton's "stronger together" message from 2016.
That's pathetic.
— Thoughts Of Truth ⤴️ (@True_Thoughts) February 12, 2019
Trump's 2020 slogan is Stronger Together?
Um, my head hurts. https://t.co/Tw6og2g1oO
— Jesse Ferguson (@JesseFFerguson) February 12, 2019
If Donald Trump steales the slogan "stronger together" from us
We're stealing "lock him up" https://t.co/gPkHJSdfpu
— angelo (@angel0t0pia) February 12, 2019
Trump: Stronger together
That's Hillary's 2016 slogan, are you plagiarizing like your wife?
Trump: I'm with her.
Okey dokey— Carter 🏄 Hall (@CarterHall_) February 12, 2019
Cue the montage of Trump mocking “stronger together” that I would totally be making if I wasn’t on vacation https://t.co/e3C1YqJv5Z
— Rachel Witkin (@rachel_witkin) February 12, 2019
Good gad. How typical. Trump cheated to win 2016 election. Now Republicans plagiarized the slogan. Disgusting
— LaMinang (@LaMinang) February 12, 2019
Hillary Clinton even chimed in with her thoughts on the choice of words, trying to convince Trump to copy other parts of her campaign:
Now copy my plan on health care, a fairer tax system, and voting rights. https://t.co/AGyA6ZHl1R https://t.co/OuFklznJgf
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 12, 2019
The GOP was quick to have an excuse ready for why the president was seemingly plagiarizing his rival’s slogan. Their rationale? Clinton wasn’t using the catch-phrase any longer since she lost.
“When you lose your campaign, you lose your monopoly on any slogans,” RNC spokesman Steve Guest said.
Someone should tell the president and the Republican Party that’s not how plagiarism works.