#ShakespeareInTheTrump: ‘Julius Caesar’ Backlash Mocked With Trump-Takes on Bard’s Works

Social media had plenty of jokes about the negative reaction to a production of “Julius Caesar” featuring a Trump-version of the title role

julius caesar trump
Joan Marcus

Twitter is having fun at the President’s expense today, inspired by a week-long backlash against a Shakespeare in the Park performance of “Julius Caesar” that featured a Donald Trump-inspired take on the title character.

The outcry against the production by New York’s Public Theater led sponsors Bank of America and Delta Airlines to withdraw their support, and culminated Friday night when two protesters crashed the stage and interrupted the performance.

Notably, a production of the play in 2012 featuring a Barack Obama-inspired take on Julius Caesar provoked no such outrage. Inspired by that and by Friday’s incident, Twitter decided to lean into it and imagine some other seminal works from the Bard — only Trumpified.

Democratic political consultant John Aravosis started the conversation Saturday morning, asking his 65,000 followers to imagine what it would be like if “all of Shakespeare was really written about Donald Trump,” suggesting “King Lear” would be renamed “King Leer” and adding the hashtag #ShakespeareInTheTrump.

https://twitter.com/aravosis/status/876088098819584001

Twitter rolled with it, and had plenty of suggestions:

https://twitter.com/LindaKrylov/status/876115421879037952

https://twitter.com/CMontyBurnsIII/status/876118797266161664

https://twitter.com/aravosis/status/876092912299384832

https://twitter.com/Rossalincoln/status/876119334568861698

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