President Donald Trump compared himself to an aging lion being attacked by a clan of hyenas on Friday morning when he quote-tweeted a meme posted by White House Deputy Director of Communications Dan Scavino.
The meme was produced by Parler user @Solmeme, which features footage of an aging lion getting hectored by a pack of hyenas. The footage comes from BBC documentary Earth, and audio of Christopher Walken’s speech from the 2002 film Poolhall Junkies is laid over the top of it:
You watch those nature documentaries on the cable? You see the one about lions? You got this lion. He’s the king of the jungle, huge mane out to here. He’s laying under a tree, in the middle of Africa. He’s so big, it’s so hot. He doesn’t want to move. Now the little lions come, they start messing with him. Biting his tail, biting his ears. He doesn’t do anything. The lioness, she starts messing with him. Coming over, making trouble. Still nothing. Now the other animals, they
notice this. They start to move in. The jackals; hyenas. They’re barking at him, laughing at him. They nip his toes, and eat the food that’s in his domain. They do this, then they get closer and closer, bolder and bolder. Till one day, that lion gets up and tears the shit out of everybody. Runs like the wind, eats everything in his path. Cause every once in a while, the lion has to show the jackals, who he is.
As the speech ends, Rick Ross’s breakout hit Hustlin’ is played. Watch the video below:
Given that Trump added “So much truth!” to the meme, it’s clear that he sees himself as the lion being attacked by jackals and fighting back. In the extended version of the actual BBC clip, the aging lion looks to become a victim to the hyena clan but is only saved when another, younger male lion saves the aging lion’s life.