DONALD Trump may have launched his 2020 re-election in Florida last night, but the US President's war of words with 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton shows no sign of abating.
Speaking at his official campaign launch in Orlando on Tuesday, the belittler-in-chief debuted an impression of "Crooked Hillary" as he once again took aim at her emails – prompting numerous "lock her up" chants from his crowd of supporters.
It came just a day after Mrs Clinton launched her own fresh broadside at the POTUS during an appearance at the 30th anniversary gala of the Irish Repertory Theater in New York on Monday night.
The event saw husband Bill honoured for his role in the Northern Ireland peace process by brokering the 1998 Good Friday Agreement while US President, but Mrs Clinton's appearance was the headline-grabber.
Appearing on stage at the beginning of the evening, the 71-year-old quoted legendary Irish wordsmith WB Yeats' iconic poem The Second Coming in a thinly-veiled swipe at Mr Trump and his administration.
According to Irish Central, Mrs Clinton asked those assembled whether the verses were biblical or political and answered her own question by stating they were clearly the latter.
She reportedly received a thunderous applause following her recital of the oft-quoted poem, which reads:
"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
The Irish Repertory Theater was founded three decades ago by Cavan-born immigrant Ciarán O'Reilly, in collaboration with American actress and director Charlotte Moore.
Monday's special ceremony saw O'Reilly himself deliver a touching interpretation of Easter 1916 by Yeats, with Hollywood star Alec Baldwin reciting fellow Irish poet Seamus Heaney and Riverdance composer Bill Whelan reprising the iconic opening scene from the show.
Several classic songs were also belted out on the night – including The Fields of Athenry, Danny Boy, Finian's Rainbow, Sunday Bloody Sunday and Amazing Grace.
