The author likened the president to a Boggart — a shape-shifting character from her fictional Harry Potter books — in a tweet she shared online Friday:
“Warning: there is a Boggart on the loose in Times Square,” she captioned a photograph of an unidentified performance artist dressed as Trump in New York.
Per Rowling’s Pottermore website, a Boggart assumes the form “of whatever most frightens the person who encounters it” and may be found “lurking in woods and around shadowy corners.”
It can be defeated, however, by the “Riddikulus” spell, which “involves making the creature into a figure of fun, so that fear can be dispelled in amusement.”
Rowling has previously dubbed her most evil Harry Potter character, Voldemort, as being “nowhere near as bad” as Trump.
Naturally, many Twitter users appeared to enjoy the taunt:
Are we sure it’s not a Dementor? I feel cold, like all the happiness in the world has been sucked out of me when it is near.
— Zia Karim (@zkarim) April 20, 2018
Wait, what did it originally look like? This is clearly after someone’s yelled Riddikulus.
— Sudhir Srinivasan (@sudhirsrinivasn) April 20, 2018
Is THAT what Boggarts look like in their natural state?! (No WONDER you didn’t mention what Moody saw… Eek. Good call, Jo!)
— Eric J Scull (@spielerman) April 20, 2018
And we don’t even need to use the Riddikulus spell to banish him; he comes pre-ridiculous.
— Tony Hoffman (@TonyJHoffman) April 20, 2018