Watch CBS News

Donald Trump Retweets Fascist Dictator's Quote

PITTSBURGH (KDKA/CBS) -- Donald Trump is coming under fire for retweeting a quote from Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

The tweet reads, "It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep," and includes Trump's twitter handle. He retweeted it to his page around 6 a.m. Sunday.

According to CBS News, the GOP front-runner was asked about the tweet on NBC's "Meet the Press." They reportedly asked Trump whether he realized it was a Mussolini quote when he retweeted it, and he said he did realize and that it's an "interesting quote."

"Look, Mussolini was Mussolini. It's okay to--it's a very good quote, it's a very interesting quote, and I know it," he said. "I saw it. I saw what--and 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."

According to Gawker.com, one of their employees created a Twitter bot account to post quotes from dictator Benito Mussolini, with all of them attributed to Donald Trump.

"Last year, we set a trap for Trump. We came up with the idea for that Mussolini bot under the assumption that Trump would retweet just about anything, no matter how dubious or vile the source, as long as it sounded like praise for himself," the article reads.

Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page
Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On Twitter

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.