I want to compile a list of Trump’s overused words and phrases, for the purpose of writing satirical Trumpspeak. Some of the ones I have observed are:
Tremendous
Disaster
Amazing
Fantastic
Terrific
Great
Loser, total loser
Win, winner, winning
Disgusting
Unbelievable, unbelievably
Sad
Very, very very
Huge
Bigly
Trust me
Believe me
Folks
Okay?
Some people are saying
People are telling me
Add your own, then we can start composing original Trumpspeak.
Rigged
“I guarantee it.” He probably says this more than the guy from Men’s Wearhouse ever did.
“By the way”, used whenever he wants to highlight the actual central point of a given topic.
By the way, that particular verbal tic drives me nuts.
His essential vocabulary seems to be fewer than 100 words, because he shouts two or three keywords and then promises he’ll do great things. On to next keyword.
Fired
Crooked
Chi-na!
Unfair. He says this more than most five-year-olds.
I’m Very VERY rich.
I only just realized this this week, but Trump is not actually saying “bigly.” He is actually saying, “big league.”
For months and months I heard, “bigly,” and wondered what that fuck that was about. It finally fell into place when I saw Trump’s, “big league,” tweet to olympic athletes.
Sad!
This is the best [random Trump product] you’ll ever buy.
Love
“I love babies.” (Now get that damned crying baby out of here.)
“We love our African Americans!”
“The hispanics love me.”
“I love the poorly educated.”
Success/ful
Similarly, he uses “frankly” a lot.
Both are what linguist S. H. Elgin calls “phony leveling”–a technique used by unscrupulous persons to manipulate others. (A brief discussion is readable in the link at the end of this post.)
What follows Trump’s “frankly” and “by the way” is almost always something completely false, and, of course, damaging to whomever Trump is trying to disparage. Trump’s tone when using these devices is very mild-mannered and almost casual, as if to say ‘I regret having to tell you, and I wouldn’t like to be accused of caring one way or the other, but the fact is that Hillary is an animal torturer, and, hey, it had to be said.’
I was about to start my own thread “Teach Me How To Channel Trump” inspired by this, which seemed very authentic:
It’s not just the words, it’s the rhythm and the pace, and the connections and half-connections and utter-lack-of connections that make it real. Almost as if every word he utters is uttered with the idea “will I be able to deny this tomorrow?”
Another thing he does is use “not” to modify an adjective. “She is a not smart person.”
Yep, same with “I’ve gotta be honest…” It’s a red flag that a lie is on its way.
Overrated OP tries to catalog Trump’s best words without alluding to his literary form attack haiku. Sad!
I can’t believe I’m the first to mention “deal”.