President Donald Trump decided to break from script and revive an older campaign tradition by reading the 1963 “snake poem” on Sunday at a campaign rally in Hickory, North Carolina
“So I was asked on this very windy night to… do a thing we used to do during the campaign,” Trump told the crowd of supporters. “I’ll do it. Has anyone heard of The Snake? Should I do it? It’s been a long time since I’ve done this one, but so many people are asking.”
The lyrics, adapted in 1963 by songwriter Oscar Brown from Aesop’s Fable “The Farmer and the Viper,” describes a story about a woman’s rescue of a poisonous snake, which ends up returning the favor by biting her. The snake claims, “You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.”
President Trump has previously used the poem as an allegory for the Syrian Refugee Crisis and “generous” immigration policy that places the interests of foreigners at the top.
President Trump has previously recited the poem at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference, which hosts conservatives from across the country in Washington, D.C., for an event each year.
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