Trump’s 2017 Inauguration Speech Was Eerily Similar to ‘Batman’ Villain Bane's Dialogue: "Today, We..."

Donald Trump commemorated his first presidential run with an apparently special Batman reference in his inaugural speech. The former president’s populist message appeared to have echoed one of the iconic villain Bane’s dialogues in the film. The fact was highlighted by journalist Timothy Burke, who shared a stitched video of Trump’s speech with Tom Hardy’s Bane speaking to the Gotham City people in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, per The Hollywood Reporter. 

While President-elect Trump has not officially acknowledged it, the eerie similarity of the politician’s speech to that of the villain’s is not worth ignoring. “Today’s ceremony, however, has a very special meaning because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another,” Trump declared to the Washington D.C. crowd, “but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people.” 

Now, a DC fan would barely need to recheck the iconic scene where Bane addresses the people of Gotham after taking over the city. The villain announces from the steps of Gotham’s Blackgate Prison, “We take Gotham from the corrupt! The rich! The oppressors of generations who have kept you down with myths of opportunity. And we give it to you, the people.” To add context, Bane encourages the citizens to storm Blackgate prison and do as they please under his rule. “Gotham will survive!” the antagonist yells before dispersing the crowd. 

Poking fun at the former president, another user synced the movie’s audio with Trump’s speech, and the monologue fit like a glove. It was later revealed that Trump’s inaugural speech was drafted by his incoming policy adviser, Stephen Miller, who was 31 at the time. However, the Republican has been long known as a Dark Knight Rises fanboy, leading to debates on whether he knew his speech included Bane’s line. 

In 2012, after the final installment of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy premiered, Trump took to his usually abandoned Trump Organization YouTube channel to drop a now-private review of the film. He specifically praised the film’s cinematography while pointing out the significance of the Trump Tower as Wayne Enterprises in the feature, per VICE. “I’ll tell you, it was really terrific. What they did was incredible. You couldn’t have done it three years ago…Most importantly Trump Tower—my building—plays a role,” the president-elect said in the video. 

Trump’s relatability to Bane became a fest for comedians to take jibes at him for weeks. Comedian and host Seth Meyers joked about Trump taking office after speculation emerged that his consistent digs on the politician during the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner had inspired him to run for president. “I thought, ‘Oh, that was a good job of zinging that guy.’ And then it seems like I gave Bane his origin story,” Meyers said. Other comedians also compared the soon-to-be president with Batman villains like Joker and added him to comic book covers.