Donald Trump defended posting a quote from Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini on his Twitter account Sunday.

The Republican frontrunner said he saw nothing wrong with retweeting the quote “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep” from a Twitter site named after Adolf Hitler’s closest wartime ally.

“Look, Mussolini was Mussolini. It’s OK,” Trump said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’ “It’s a very good quote…I know who said it. But what difference does it make whether it’s Mussolini or somebody else? It’s certainly a very interesting quote.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Trump continued that he likes to Tweet “interesting quotes” to his legions of loyal followers on social media.

“I want to be associated with interesting quotes. And people, you know, I have almost 14 million people between Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and all of that. And we do interesting things. And I sent it out. And certainly, hey, it got your attention, didn’t it?”

Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy in the early 1920s and ran the nation for more than two decades, paving the way for other fascist regimes to take control, including Hitler’s in Germany. The leader known as Il Duce was toppled from power in 1943 as the Nazi-led war effort faltered. The was captured and executed in April 1945.

Trump last month retweeted a post from a white supremacist site that had previously Tweeted a photoshopped image of Trump sending Democrat Bernie Sanders to the gas chamber.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount