# Trump the neologist **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 11, 2017, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373 "2017-05-11T17:16:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/1 "2017-05-11T17:16:57Z")
Trump is so inventive that he [coins wonderful new phrases](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/05/11/trump-says-he-invented-an-84-year-old-phrase-but-why/) at the drop of a hat. _Prime the pump_ will now have Trump’s picture next to it when you check out its figurative use in a dictionary. Or not. From an interview with The Economist in the link above: > [@](#): > > TRUMP: Yeah, have you heard it? > > ECONOMIST: Yes. > > TRUMP: Have you heard that expression used before? Because I haven’t heard it. I mean, I just … I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good. It’s what you have to do. Merriam-Webster is quick to call bullshit on this. The figurative use of the phrase has been around since at least 1933. But fair enough, we can all make the mistake of thinking we’ve coined something ourselves if we haven’t heard it before, right? The problem with that though is that Trump has not only heard it before but has used it on multiple occasions in the past as The Washington Post illustrates. I find Trump forgetting that he’s used the phrase many times before very, very worrying. This is the guy who is tasked with presiding over the most powerful country on the planet and he has a fucking memory like this? That is disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/2 "2017-05-11T17:25:04Z")
Just further evidence that the guy is a delusional pathological liar. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/3 "2017-05-11T17:33:17Z")
I love the idea that he coined a phrase yesterday about priming pumps. You know, that thing we do all the time in modern society. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/4 "2017-05-11T17:35:36Z")
If asked, Trump will tell you that he invented pumps. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/5 "2017-05-11T17:54:24Z")
This should go in **Johnny LA** ’s thread tracking signs of Trump’s mental deterioration. ---
**Author:** ![Philliam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/philliam/32/3011_2.png) [@Philliam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philliam)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/6 "2017-05-11T18:26:04Z")
Maybe he just heard The Kingston Trio doing the 60’s hit _Desert Pete_ on his crappy Oval Office stereo? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/7 "2017-05-11T18:44:01Z")
As much as I haaaaaaaaate Trump - and I hate him a lot - I have a feeling that he wasn’t saying he coined the term but he was saying he just thought of applying it to the tax situation a couple days ago and is proud of himself for making the connection. Just my interpretation, I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/8 "2017-05-11T18:49:11Z")
Back when, the only way to make an over-the-top spoof character like Austin Powers work as a relatable protagonist was to supply a more over-the-top villain in the form of Doctor Evil – and, when they inevitably got to a point where they needed an even _more_ over-the-top exemplar of silliness to serve as _that_ guy’s backstory? Well, the best they could come up with – as a silly gag – was Doc’s father. “He would make outrageous claims, like he invented the question mark.” See, they’d written themselves into a corner, and had to invent someone _implausible._ ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/9 "2017-05-11T18:55:48Z")
I feel like we are— at most— weeks away from a press interview in which Trump wears a saucepan on his head, bangs his fists on his desk and shouts “_ME GO POOPY_!” Followed by a haggard Steven Mnuchin: “I think what the president is \*trying \*to say…” ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/10 "2017-05-11T18:56:01Z")
Interviewer in _Italics_ from the [Economist](http://www.economist.com/Trumptranscript), while Trump is in plain old text. \*\*_But beyond that it’s OK if the tax plan increases the deficit?_ It is OK, because it won’t increase it for long. You may have two years where you’ll…you understand the expression “prime the pump”? _Yes_. We have to prime the pump. _It’s very Keynesian._ We’re the highest-taxed nation in the world. Have you heard that expression before, for this particular type of an event? _Priming the pump?_ Yeah, have you heard it? _Yes_. Have you heard that expression used before? Because I haven’t heard it. I mean, I just…I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good. It’s what you have to do. _It’s…_ Yeah, what you have to do is you have to put something in before you can get something out.\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/11 "2017-05-11T19:02:02Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > As much as I haaaaaaaaate Trump - and I hate him a lot - I have a feeling that he wasn’t saying he coined the term but he was saying he just thought of applying it to the tax situation a couple days ago and is proud of himself for making the connection. > > Just my interpretation, I could be wrong. I appreciate this effort at charity. I disagree that this was his intent, but I respect the impulse. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/12 "2017-05-11T19:11:39Z")
Dibs on “short-fingered vulgarian”. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/13 "2017-05-11T19:15:18Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Dibs on “short-fingered vulgarian”. Too late-I just invented that term. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/14 "2017-05-11T19:16:02Z")
This finally explains why – even when given the chance to clarify, and say that he’d only meant it _metaphorically_ – Trump patiently explained that, uh, no, he meant that Obama was, literally, the founder of ISIS: he must’ve heard Obama say “ISIS”. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/15 "2017-05-11T19:16:42Z")
Such an embarrassment that he is president. I still can’t believe it. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/16 "2017-05-12T00:15:58Z")
Things like this make me really wonder whether is starting on the road to dementia. Really. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/17 "2017-05-12T01:31:20Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > Such an embarrassment that he is president. I still can’t believe it. Believe it. Did you see his interview with Lester Holt? O. M. G. ! - He is without a doubt the most inarticulate President we’ve ever had. He makes GW Bush look like Lincoln. Or, maybe he’s articulate and just, you know, _stupid_. ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/18 "2017-05-12T12:08:56Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > As much as I haaaaaaaaate Trump - and I hate him a lot - I have a feeling that he wasn’t saying he coined the term but he was saying he just thought of applying it to the tax situation a couple days ago and is proud of himself for making the connection. > > Just my interpretation, I could be wrong. I agree with you. “Have you heard that expression before, for this particular type of an event?” It’s still silly to think that applying an existing phrase to a new situation is a leap of cleverness (and I doubt he’s the first to use it this way), but I think it’s clear he’s not claiming to have coined the phrase itself. I’m actually surprised that he understands the phrase and used it in a context where it made sense. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2017, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-the-neologist/786373/19 "2017-05-12T12:53:05Z")
> [@Gus\_Gusterson](#): > > I think it’s clear he’s not claiming to have coined the phrase itself. His actual words: > [@](#): > > Have you heard that expression used before? Because I haven’t heard it. I mean, I just…I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good. What about that suggests he’s talking about having coined it in a specific context?