President Donald Trump’s recent post on social media, which was a single sentence quote from a historical movie about Napoleon, has managed to trigger insane left-wingers and resulted in a wave of criticism eager to make him look like a blossoming dictator. Is there anything these folks won’t turn into a controversy?
“He who saves his country does not violate any law,” Trump said in the post, which was shared across all of his accounts. How many times do people share quotes from movies or historical figures that they find fascinating? It doesn’t always equal an endorsement of the idea.
He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2025
The line is close to one from the 1970 film, Waterloo, which is about the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. The lead role, played by actor Rod Steiger, says similar words during a scene where Napoleon is in exile on Elba, taking time to reflect back on his reign as emperor and his right to rule.
“The line is not a declaration that a ruler is above the law or licensed to commit crimes but a response to the accusation that his rise to power itself was unlawful. Napoleon argues that his leadership was not an illegitimate usurpation but a necessary act to preserve France in a time of crisis,” Breitbart explained.
“While there is no evidence that Napoleon ever spoke these words, different versions of the quote have been attributed to the French leader many times over the last century and a half. It is sort of a folklore distillation of Napoleon’s claim to legitimacy,” the report continued.
“The idea that a leader who acts to save his country should not be considered a criminal has deep roots in political philosophy, stretching back to Cicero, the Roman statesman and orator. In his work De Legibus (On the Laws), Cicero argued that salus populi suprema lex esto—’the welfare of the people shall be the supreme law.’ Trump’s invocation of the Waterloo quote plays on this same theme—suggesting that, far from being a usurper, he represents the will of the people against a corrupt elite,” it added.
But when you’re suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, the president sharing this line from the film was essentially his confirmation that he would be a leader that would transcend legal constraints, which he’s not done during the entire time he’s been in office, back in 2016 and now, at the beginning of his second term.
California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff kicked off the fear mongering by saying, “Spoken like a true dictator.” How many dictators in history have sought to shrink the size of government and provide more freedom and economic stability for their people?
That’s the opposite of a dictatorship, Sen. Schiff.
The article then explained, “Yet for those who have observed Trump’s political style and the response of his rivals over the years, the reaction was entirely predictable. Trump has long understood how to provoke his critics into revealing their own anxieties and obsessions. By quoting this film version of Napoleon, Trump baited his opponents into branding him a lawless ruler while exposing their own belief that he is illegitimate and a budding tyrant. The outrage was not about a single line from a film—it was about the broader struggle over whether Trump’s presidency, despite repeated efforts to block or overturn it, represents the will of the people or a break with the rule of law.”
The reactions from folks on both sides of the spectrum go along way in revealing where people’s biases lie. The radical left who are dedicated to opposing every step Trump takes while in office see the quote in the worst possible way. Conservatives who back the president see it as calling back to a historical figure who was exiled and then ended up elevated by popular support to once again lead his country.
Sound familiar?