Russian official compares Trump’s clash with US media to "Gulliver’s Travels"

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova has compared US President Donald Trump’s ongoing confrontation with American media outlets to the fictional conflict between Big-Endians and Little-Endians in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.

“Trump has expelled US TV channels from the White House press pool. The channels responded with ‘silent film’ — they are now broadcasting Trump’s speeches with the sound turned off. Trump countered by launching a channel named after himself: Trump TV now broadcasts round the clock on an American video-sharing platform. It is reminiscent of Jonathan Swift’s immortal work, in which the Big-Endians fought to the death with the Little-Endians over which end to wash eggs from,” Zakharova wrote on Telegram.

She added: “I’m not taking sides, but given the rock-bottom standard of American TV channels, I consider this particular front line to be the ‘blunt-end’ camp.”

Zakharova was referring to the satirical dispute in Swift’s 1726 novel, in which the Lilliputians are divided into rival factions over which end of an egg should be broken first.

By Sabina Mammadli