“Nothing burger” is a distant third after “hoax” and “fake news” for dismissing accusations of Trump malfeasance.
I’ve used nothing burger for a long time especially at work.
I have never heard of it in relation to trump.
Interesting.
My first husband’s family used to have a joke about the “Nickelburger” – no meat, no bun, just mustard.
That’s all I got.
I think I hear it most properly applied to media stories, with the implication that a “nothingburger” has no meat and isn’t worth your time.
For a media industry that’s profit-motivated, sensation-dependent, and often running on thin margins, “nothingburger” is highly effective prejudicial framing. This story has no meat, no substance, no legs, no moxie. It won’t go viral. It won’t make a splash. You won’t profit from it, you won’t win a Pulitzer, you won’t make a name for yourself or get a million YouTube followers. You’re wasting your time. Few journalists want to invest in a story like that.
I truly believe this is why Trump leans on it so hard. In reality he’s swimming in a pool of somethingburgers, any of which would’ve sunk any other presidency. But he’s a TV man, he’s media-savvy. He knows the power of telling reporters and producers that they’re not going to get paid. He knows “nothingburger” is often enough to scare a financially-motivated press away from covering a story. And he’s usually been right.
So while I’m pretty sure Trump didn’t invent “nothingburger”, nobody’s ever popularized it like he has, nor turned it to their advantage with such devastating effectiveness.
I googled “Nothingburger Trump,” and got tons of hits from news articles, dating back to at least 2016. Nearly all of them were writers using the term in reference to Trump (his speeches, his proposals, accusations against him, etc.), not direct quotes of Trump using the term.
A “nothingburger” can refer to a person - “He’s a nothingburger” means he has no significant qualities; he’s a non-entity.
But it’s also used in reference to an issue or topic or controversy. “That break-in at the DNC is a nothing-burger” means that there’s no substance to the Watergate story, no need for further investigation, etc. I’m sure that DJT supporters have often claimed that a particular Trumpian controversy is a “nothingburger” - so that’s how the term is related to Trump.
I remember the term from the 1970s, I think
Back when I used to watch cable news, there was a frequent GW Bush apologist (maybe Bill Kristol?) on the Chris Matthews show who’s favorite word was “nothing-burger”.
Google ngrams says the word was briefly popular in the 1980s (peaking 1988) dropped back to obscurity as suddenly as it rose, and then started shooting up in usage around 2013. It doesn’t see any usage of the word before 1979.
I’m having trouble embedding the chart, but go to
To see for yourself.
I looked at Ngram Viewer for both the compound word “nothingburger” and the term as two separate words (“nothing burger”), as both versions get used today. The latter shows a little bit of noise in the 1980s, a bigger bump in the late '90s (which may or may not be similar usage to how it’s used today), and then taking off in 2013, as well.
I consume very little news whether it be articles or televised media. I read clips here and there just to stay conversational. That could explain my lack of awareness.
I’ve probably heard it in relation to Trump but it didn’t register as anything significant because I had heard it enough in other contexts.
Is it at all related to “Where’s the beef?”
What is a nothing burger?
A person from Nothingburg.