Trumpeting

Above:  Reginald Remington Trump

When Sarah Palin gave her speech the other day to endorse candidate Donald Trump, she trumpeted, "“And you quit footing the bill for these nations who are oil-rich, we’re paying for some of their squirmishes that have been going on for centuries. Where they’re fighting each other and yelling ‘Allahu akbar,’ calling jihad on each other’s heads forever and ever. Like I’ve said before, let them duke it out and let Allah sort it out.”

Some noted that Palin had coined a new term, "squrirmishes,"  a cross between "squirm"  and "skirmish."  However, the word "squirmishes" first appeared in 1860 in a poem by Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request) about the candidacy of Reginald Remington Trump.  More info about that election is HERE, HERE, and HERE.

In his campaign for the Republican nomination in 1860, Reginald Trump boasted that he could shoot down Herky the Hawk, the mascot at the University of Iowa, and still win the Iowa caucuses. Emmett Lee Dickinson wrote about his outlandish claim in his poem "I've got a shotgun here" (below on the left). the poem which includes the first known used of the word "squirmishes."  Dicknson's poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "Ive got an arrow here" (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

I've got a shotgun here;
   Loving the hand that holds it,
I the heat revere.

Rise, I will say, in "squirmish"!
   Vanquished, the polls will show,
Even with a single shot
   My fan base will grow.

By Emily Dickinson:

I've got an arrow here;
   Loving the hand that sent it,
I the dart revere.

Fell, they will say, in "skirmish"!
   Vanquished, my soul will know,
By but a simple arrow
   Sped by an archer's bow.