THE rIGHT IS THE lEFT:

The phrase has old roots, even appearing in a Shakespeare play, but it became well known in the 20th century when it was adopted by dictators from Stalin to Mao, and Nazi propagandists, to justify their murderous purges of millions.

Stalin was perhaps most closely associated with the phrase, which successor Nikita Khrushchev specifically denounced in a landmark speech after Stalin's death, which he used to begin dismantling the dictator's poisonous legacy.

"Stalin originated the concept 'enemy of the people'. This term automatically made it unnecessary that the ideological errors of a man be proven," Khrushchev said in his secret address to the Communist party's inner circle.

"It made possible the use of the cruellest repression, against anyone who in any way disagreed with Stalin, against those who were only suspected of hostile intent, against those who had bad reputations."

In fact the phrase was first deployed in a modern political sense during the French Revolution, allied with a form of another favourite Trump phrase, "fake news", according to the New York Times.

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