--- title: Donald Trump Says He Is Victim of Witch Hunt Despite History description: Find out what historians said about Donald Trump's choice to call the investigation into alleged Russian interference a "witch hunt." canonical: https://time.com/4784158/donald-trump-witch-hunt-history/ author: Samantha Cooney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-18T21:05:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:05:38.571Z og:title: President Trump Has Now Appropriated Witch Hunts og:description: Historians weigh in on the worst-treated politician’s choice of words og:url: https://time.com/4784158/donald-trump-witch-hunt-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd02abebe1a669706/6988cdf4fb4eac38b08920f9/donald-trump-witch-hunts.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Holds Joint Press Conference With Colombian President Santos og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Has Now Appropriated Witch Hunts twitter:description: Historians weigh in on the worst-treated politician’s choice of words twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd02abebe1a669706/6988cdf4fb4eac38b08920f9/donald-trump-witch-hunts.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Has Now Appropriated Witch Hunts  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney May 18, 2017 9:05 PM UTC  WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 18: U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a joint news conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos at the White House May 18, 2017 in Washington, DC. The Trump administration has said it wants to slash foreign aide and Santos will most likely seek a renewal of $450 million dollars from the U.S. that supports the peace accord between the Columbian government at the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 18: U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a joint news conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos at the White House May 18, 2017 in Washington, DC. The Trump administration has said it wants to slash foreign aide and Santos will most likely seek a renewal of $450 million dollars from the U.S. that supports the peace accord between the Columbian government at the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)Mark Wilson—Getty Images  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney May 18, 2017 9:05 PM UTC Following the appointment of a [special counsel](http://time.com/4774442/robert-mueller-special-counsel-independent-prosecutor-donald-trump-russia/) to investigate Russia’s alleged interference in the [2016 presidential election](http://time.com/4563685/donald-trump-wins/?iid=sr-link1), President Donald Trump [took](http://time.com/4784040/donald-trump-special-counsel-twitter/?xid=homepage) to Twitter to denounce the move as the “single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/865207118785372160) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/865169927644340224) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/865173176854204416) It isn’t the [first time ](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/31/us/politics/trump-calls-congressional-inquiry-witch-hunt.html?%5Fr=0)Trump has [described](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/us/politics/donald-trump-wall-hack-russia.html) the probe into Russian involvement in the election as a “witch hunt” by Democrats. But his tweet seem to strike a nerve on social media on Thursday. In addition to seemingly ignoring some other large political witch hunts (see: the [Red Scare)](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/02/27/time-turns-90-all-you-need-to-know-about-modern-history-in-90-cover-stories/slide/1954-sen-joseph-mccarthy/?iid=sr-link3), others noted the complicated and gendered history of the term itself. > [](https://twitter.com/TayZonday/status/865246382965219336) > [](https://twitter.com/erikhinton/status/865177956657790976) > [](https://twitter.com/Wolfe321/status/865194988149366785) > [](https://twitter.com/JessePesta/status/865187816954896385) “I don’t want to be a purist of language. It’s OK to use these metaphors,” [Michelle Brock](https://www.wlu.edu/history-department/faculty-and-staff/profile?ID=x9671), an assistant professor of history at Washington & Lee University who researches witchcraft and religion, told _Motto._ “But I think it needs to be done in a way that’s conscientious of the historical weight of those terms and recognizes the seriousness of what those terms have meant in the past and present.” Between roughly [1450 and 1750](http://www.faculty.umb.edu/gary%5Fzabel/Courses/Phil%20281b/Philosophy%20of%20Magic/Arcana/Witchcraft%20and%20Grimoires/case%5Fwitchhunts.html), as Brock noted, European societies panicked that many individuals were witches possessed by the devil and capable of harming others. Many were put on trial and thousands were executed. The paranoia also touched down in the U.S., most notably in [Salem, Mass.](http://time.com/3398176/salem-witch-trials/?iid=sr-link5) > [](https://twitter.com/sethmoulton/status/865238855800279040) And of course, the vast majority of the people targeted in the “witch hunts” were women. “The idea of the witch is very gendered,” Brock said. “There was this idea that women were more susceptible to the devil because they were of the weaker, frailer sex. There were some incredibly misogynistic texts written in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries about women as witches.” The word takes on a new irony considering the treatment of Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton, by his supporters during the presidential election. Trump’s supporters frequently [chanted](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/22/a-brief-history-of-the-lock-her-up-chant-as-it-looks-like-trump-might-not-even-try/?utm%5Fterm=.752bf83c68a9) “lock her up” in reference to the first female presidential candidate of a major political party. Stacy Schiff, the author of[_The Witches: Suspicion, Betrayal and Hysteria in 1692 Salem_](https://www.amazon.com/Witches-Suspicion-Betrayal-Hysteria-Salem/dp/031620059X/?tag=mottocom-20)_,_[wrote](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/31/opinion/witchcraft-on-the-campaign-trail.html) in the New York _Times_ that the episodes echoed the treatment of suspected witches during the hunts. Some Trump [supporters](http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/10/23/exclusive-dont-vote-lying-witch-inside-donald-trumps-movement-driven-sunshine-state-effort-defeat-hillary-clinton-florida/) invoked actual [“witch”](http://heavy.com/news/2016/10/donald-trump-rally-speech-event-warren-michigan-community-college-best-photos-pictures-crowd-audience-supporters-voters-fan-line-buttons-halloween-costumes/7/) imagery at rallies on the [campaign trail](http://heavy.com/news/2016/10/donald-trump-rally-speech-event-warren-michigan-community-college-best-photos-pictures-crowd-audience-supporters-voters-fan-line-buttons-halloween-costumes/5/) to describe Clinton. Conservative talk show host [Rush Limbaugh](http://time.com/4212881/rush-limbaugh-marco-rubio-debate-obama/?iid=sr-link3) even [referred](http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/298092-limbaugh-clinton-a-witch-with-a-capital-b) to Clinton as a “witch with a capital B” after the [first presidential debate](http://time.com/4508768/presidential-debate-trump-clinton-transcript/?iid=sr-link1). “One of the great ironies of this of course is that Trump is not someone who has an especially [high view of women](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.4e958b5b3b87),” Brock said. “For Trump to co-opt that term to paint himself as a victim shows a total misunderstanding and woeful ignorance of women — but also an unwillingness to see how power structures work and to be sensitive to the deep meanings behind this terminology.” Brock says that she’s not suggesting that we completely retire the term, which has been used to refer to a number of other political scandals. But she does think that we need to be mindful of its context and historical significance. Its figurative [definition](https://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/trump-single-greatest-witch-hunt-20170518), according to [Merriam-Webster](http://motto.time.com/4729330/merriam-webster-social-media-team-donald-trump/), is “the searching out and deliberate harassment of those (such as political opponents) with unpopular views.” “We can talk about witch hunts without witches,” Brock said. “But if you want to use them to describe something happening now, it needs to be done in a way that’s cognizant of that history.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4784158/donald-trump-witch-hunt-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4784158/donald-trump-witch-hunt-history/"},"headline":"President Trump Has Now Appropriated Witch Hunts","datePublished":"2017-05-18T21:05:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:05:38.571Z","description":"Historians weigh in on the worst-treated politician’s choice of words","url":"https://time.com/4784158/donald-trump-witch-hunt-history/","keywords":["motto","feminism","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd02abebe1a669706/6988cdf4fb4eac38b08920f9/donald-trump-witch-hunts.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd02abebe1a669706/6988cdf4fb4eac38b08920f9/donald-trump-witch-hunts.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump Holds Joint Press Conference With Colombian President Santos","caption":"Donald Trump Holds Joint Press Conference With Colombian President Santos","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4784158/donald-trump-witch-hunt-history/","name":"President Trump Has Now Appropriated Witch Hunts"}}]}] ```