
 
 President Trump speaks during the U.S. Coast Guard Change-of-Command Ceremony in Washington. (Olivier Douliery/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock) 
 
 Ben Bowling's graduation speech was one of the rare instances where electoral polling numbers can help us understand humor. 
 
 The 18-year-old is the valedictorian of the Bell County High School Class of 2018. The southeastern Kentucky school is about 80 miles north of Knoxville, Tenn. 
 
 The closest a 21st-century Democratic presidential candidate has come to winning the hearts and minds of the people of Bell County, Ky., was in 2004, when John F. Kerry got 39 percent of people there to punch a ticket for him. 
 
 [Trump might be able to pardon himself. But he’d probably regret it.] 
 
 Every other race has been (more of) a landslide by whoever happened to be on the Republican side of the ballot: nearly 71 percent for John McCain in 2008, according to the state's board of elections. Mitt Romney got 76 percent in 2012, and Donald Trump received an overwhelming 82 percent of Bell County's votes in 2016. 
 
 On Saturday, Bowling was slated to give a speech before his cap-and-gown-wearing peers and their families, as he noted in one fourth-wall breaking segment. 
 
 “This is the part of my speech where I share some inspirational quotes I found on Google,” Bowling said, before doling out the best the search engine could find: 
 
 “ ‘Don't just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.’ — Donald J. Trump.” 
 
 The crowd went wild, according to a video Bowling shared with the Louisville Courier-Journal. Their applause for the commander in chief nearly drowned out Bowling's next statement: “Just kidding. That was Barack Obama.” 
 
 The applause died down to silence. 
 
 Someone booed. 
 
 But secretly, a few people in the audience were chuckling at the partisan bait-and-switch. 
 
 Crowd cheers when Kentucky HS valedictorian Ben Bowling quotes Trump, then groans when he reveals the inspirational quote was actually from Barack Obama 😂😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/7GL14IIb1S — ManSitChoAzzDown (@AngryManTV) June 4, 2018 
 
 “Y'all, no lie — the valedictorian just quoted Trump and everyone cheered ... then he told us that it was actually an Obama quote. Best part of the day. I'm rolling,” tweeted Alisha Russell, one of the people in the audience, according to the Courier-Journal. 
 
 The joke's deflating effect was not lost on the speaker, who rolled onto his next quote in silence. 
 
 “The crowd erupted in applause and before they could even finish clapping I said I was kidding, and the applause quickly died,” Bowling later told the newspaper. “I just thought it was a really good quote. Most people wouldn’t like it if I used it, so [I] thought I’d use Donald Trump’s name. It is southeastern Kentucky after all.” 
 
 Bowling could not immediately be reached for comment. 
 
 [Obama should be arrested for implying Trump needs a filter, Fox Business host suggests] 
 
 The quote he found on Google was a remark Obama made at a commencement ceremony in 2012. Speaking to graduates of Barnard College in New York, he said: “Now more than ever, America needs what you, the Class of 2012, has to offer.” 
 
 After decades of slow, steady, extraordinary progress, you are now poised to make this the century where women shape not only their own destiny but the destiny of this nation and of this world. But how far your leadership takes this country, how far it takes this world — well, that will be up to you. You’ve got to want it. It will not be handed to you. And as someone who wants that future — that better future — for you, and for Malia and Sasha, as somebody who’s had the good fortune of being the husband and the father and the son of some strong, remarkable women, allow me to offer just a few pieces of advice. That's obligatory. (Laughter.) Bear with me. My first piece of advice is this: Don’t just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table. 
 
 Bowling's speech in that corner of the Bluegrass State wasn't the only time Trump-centric politics have invaded a commencement exercise. 
 
 Beginning six months after Trump was elected president, commencement exercise after commencement exercise became a battleground for promoting or protesting the president's policies. 
 
 In May 2017, John Cornyn, a Republican senator from Texas who was then on Trump's shortlist to lead the FBI, was dropped as commencement speaker at the historically black Texas Southern University. In an online petition, students said Cornyn's views were racist and antithetical to the beliefs of many of the students there. They had threatened to boycott their own graduation. 
 
 Students at Bethune-Cookman had also threatened to boycott Education Secretary Betsy DeVos's commencement address, but administrators did not act on their petitions. Instead, the students booed and turned their backs on DeVos and administrators. Ultimately, the university's president interrupted DeVos's speech and told students, “If this behavior continues, your degrees will be mailed to you.” 
 
 That didn't happen to Bowling in Kentucky. He finished his speech, snapped some graduation pictures and received no major backlash from administrators, peers or parents — and is looking forward to going to the University of Kentucky later this year. 
 
 “I'm really excited to go to college,” Bowling told the Courier-Journal later. “There's more freedom in college and there's also way more places to eat in Lexington.” 
 
 Read more: 
 
 Trump sent a retired teacher a letter about gun policy. She fixed the grammar and sent it back. 
 
 Watch a pastor light into President Trump — with Vice President Pence sitting in the front pew 
 
 She wanted to criticize Black Lives Matter in a college speech. A protest shut her down. ||||| Wisdom comes from the unlikeliest places. And on Saturday, Ben Bowling, the valedictorian of Bell County High School in Pineville, Ky., made an inspirational appeal that left his graduating classmates and their parents dumbstruck. 
 
 “This is the part of my speech where I share some inspirational quotes I found on Google,” he told the packed auditorium. “‘Don’t just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table’ — Donald J. Trump.” 
 
 The crowd burst into applause. President Trump is quite popular in Pineville and the surrounding area, which is the heart of coal country and overwhelmingly supported the president in the 2016 election after he promised to bring coal jobs back to America. ||||| Tweet with a location 
 
 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| CLOSE Ben Bowling graduation speech Courtesy of Ben Bowling 
 
 Ben Bowling, 18, was the graduating valedictorian at Bell County High School. (Photo: Photo courtesy of Ben Bowling) 
 
 Bell County high school student and valedictorian Ben Bowling wanted to share some words of wisdom with his graduating class, but there was a twist that no one saw coming. 
 
 "This is the part of my speech where I share some inspirational quotes I found on Google," Bowling said in his speech. "'Don't just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.' - Donald J. Trump." 
 
 The crowd burst into applause. 
 
 "Just kidding," Bowling said. "That was Barack Obama." 
 
 Also: Kentucky valedictorian's speech too much for religion that favors silence 
 
 The 18-year-old valedictorian said the crowd quickly went silent. 
 
 "The crowd erupted in applause and before they could even finish clapping I said I was kidding and the applause quickly died," Bowling said. 
 
 Bowling, who graduated on Saturday morning, told Courier Journal that he "didn't mean anything bad by it" and thought the moment was lighthearted and funny. 
 
 “I just thought it was a really good quote,” Bowling said. “Most people wouldn’t like it if I used it, so I thought I’d use Donald Trump’s name. It is southeastern Kentucky after all.” 
 
 Check this out: It's time for pomp and circumstance — and high school graduation photo galleries! 
 
 Bell County, which is located in the southeastern part of the Commonwealth near the Tennessee border, overwhelmingly supported Trump in the 2016 Presidential election. Nearly 80 percent of ballots were cast for the political outsider and celebrity. 
 
 Bowling said there was no backlash to his speech at all. 
 
 "There was a portion of the crowd that thought it was absolutely hilarious," Alisha Russell, a Kentucky law student who attended the ceremony said in a Twitter message. "But there was definitely some collective groaning too." 
 
 Y’all, no lie - the valedictorian just quoted Trump and everyone cheered.. then he told us that it was actually an Obama quote. Best part of the day. I am rolling. — Alisha Russell (@_alisharussell) June 2, 2018 
 
 Russell immediately went to Twitter to share the experience. 
 
 "Y'all, no lie - the valedictorian just quoted Trump and everyone cheered ... then he told us that it was actually an Obama quote. Best part of the day. I'm rolling," Russell Tweeted. 
 
 Bowling graduated from Bell County High School with a 4.216 grade point average, he said. He will be attending the University of Kentucky where he hopes to study biology and hopes to pursue a degree in medicine. 
 
 More: Kentuckian Johnny Depp's health in question after Instagram pictures 
 
 See also: Downs After Dark adopts neon night theme at Churchill Downs 
 
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 "I'm really excited to go to college," Bowling said. "There's more freedom in college and there's also way more places to eat in Lexington." 
 
 Bowling's advice to any valedictorian who is going to give a speech, be courageous. 
 
 "Try not to be too nervous about it,” Bowling said. “For the most part, if you’ve been successful up to this point there’s nothing to worry.” 
 
 Thomas Novelly can be reached at 502-582-4465 or by email at tnovelly@courier-journal.com. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/tomn. 
 
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– Perspective is everything in persuasive speaking, which Ben Bowling found out in a flash while giving a speech as valedictorian at his Kentucky high school graduation. Per the Louisville Courier-Journal, the 18-year-old senior at Bell County High School wanted to impart a nugget of wisdom to the crowd Saturday, and so he offered this quote he said he found during an internet search: "Don't just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table." The source, he told his classmates and others, was Donald J. Trump, which elicited wild applause. "Just kidding," Bowling quickly informed his audience. "That was Barack Obama." Then, suddenly … the applause waned; the New York Times notes there was a "lone boo" (a clip is on Twitter). Bowling lives in a county where the GOP has drawn the majority of ballots in presidential elections over the past 12 years, per the Washington Post—including almost four-fifths of the votes cast in 2016 for Trump. Bowling's switcheroo drew both laughter and "collective groaning," one attendee noted, per the Courier-Journal. The teen, who's heading to the University of Kentucky to study biology and is described by his principal to the Times as "very politically aware," says he "didn't mean anything bad" by his joke and was just trying to lighten the mood with what he thought was "a really good quote." The quote, meanwhile, was taken from a 2012 commencement speech the former president gave at Barnard College. (One valedictorian revealed her undocumented status.)