The Slatest

Donald Trump Just Stole Jerry Seinfeld’s Old Bit About Police Brutality

President Donald Trump speaks at Suffolk Community College on July 28, 2017 in Brentwood, New York. Jerry Seinfeld performs at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on November 1, 2016 in New York City.
President Donald Trump speaks at Suffolk Community College on Friday in Brentwood, New York. Jerry Seinfeld performs at on Nov. 1, 2016, in New York City.

Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Spencer Platt/Getty Images and Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for the Bob Woodruff Foundation.

Jerry Seinfield on the Tonight Show; bit also performed on the Seinfeld episode “The Big Salad,” aired Sept. 22, 1994:

You know what I love? Whenever you see them on TV … they put the chokehold on the guy, they beat him with the baton, they put the handcuffs on him. But when they put him in the back seat, they always put the hand on the head—you don’t want to hit your head on that metal edge. That really hurts. Careful, easy now, don’t hurt your head. Face is all swollen from the beating. But that metal edge, that really smarts.

Donald Trump to local law enforcement officials in Brentwood, New York, on Friday:

I said, Please, don’t be too nice. Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put the hand over. Like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody, don’t hit their head. I said, You can take the hand away, OK.