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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.

Mr. Bowling, though, wasn’t finished.

“Just kidding,” he said. “That was Barack Obama.”

The cheering abruptly stopped. The crowd went mostly silent. There was a lone boo.

Mr. Bowling was quoting a May 2012 commencement speech President Obama gave to the graduating class of Barnard College in New York City. He offered this message to graduates of the women’s college then: “Women shape not only their own destiny but the destiny of this nation and of this world.”

“He’s very politically aware,” Richard Gambrel, the principal of Bell County High School, said of Mr. Bowling.

Mr. Bowling, 18, and his parents, who live in Middlesboro, Ky., declined to be interviewed.

The valedictorian, though, told The Louisville Courier Journal on Saturday that he quoted Mr. Obama because the president offered a good message. He was aware how the crowd would react, even if he shared it in a lighthearted and funny way.

“Most people wouldn’t like it if I used it,” he told The Courier Journal. “So I thought I’d use Donald Trump’s name. It is southeastern Kentucky after all.”

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– The New York Times, “Kentucky Crowds Cheers Valedictorian’s Trump Quote, Then Learns Obama Said It”