The Conversation (0)
Trump
Win McNamee/Getty Images
US president Donald Trump’s bizarre relationship with the English language is continuing to make headlines at the moment, after he asked the President of Liberia - a country where English is its official language - where he learned to speak English “so beautifully”.
During a lunch with African leaders at the White House on Wednesday, Trump said to President Joseph Boakai: “Thank you, and such good English.
“Where did you learn to speak so beautifully?
“It’s a beautiful language. I have people at this table who can’t speak nearly as well.”
This is rich coming from Trump, given the many occasions over the years in which he’s made up new words, claimed to have invented ones which already exist, and failed to properly define some altogether.
We’ve rounded them all up for your reading (dis)pleasure…
“We’re going to win bigly”
All the way back in 2016, after learning that Texas senator Ted Cruz was dropping out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Trump declared that he was “going to win bigly”.
Although clunky and archaic, it is a real word, with the Collins Dictionary defining it as “comfortably habitable”.
“Covfefe”
It was only a matter of time before this infamous word would make an appearance in this piece. It went viral in 2017 when Trump took to Twitter and wrote the sentence: “Despite the negative press covfefe.”
It’s believed the president intended to write the word ‘coverage’.
“Nambia”
2017 also saw Trump praise the “increasingly self-sufficient” nation that is “Nambia” – which actually doesn’t exist.
Namibia is a real country, as is Gambia and Zambia, so who knows what the president was actually trying to say in this moment.
“Hamberders”
We know Trump loves a McDonalds, but in January 2019 he welcomed the Clemson Tigers to the White House and treated them to “over 1,000 hamberders”.
Sorry, what?
“Infantroopen”
Also in 2019, Trump delivered a speech at the Pentagon in which he talked about his then defense secretary Mark Esper and said he was awarded “the bronze star and the combat infantroopen badge for his service”.
The official White House read-out of his speech corrected the Republican’s remarks and demonstrated that he actually fluffed his way through the word “infantryman”.
“Panican”
More recently, he took to social media in April to tell people “don’t be a PANICAN”, after his global tariffs triggered economic turmoil.
Apparently, Trump says a Panican is a “new party” for the “weak and stupid”, so there you go.
“Equalizing”
In addition to creating new words to add to the dictionary, Trump has also claimed to have invented words which already exist.
Referring to a reduction in drug prices back in May, the politician said: “Basically, what we’re doing is equalizing. It’s a new word that I came up with, which I think is probably the best word. We’re gonna equalize.”
Yes, really.
“Caravan”
Just one month later, Trump was at it again, telling reporters in the White House: “They’re sending the bad people out and they put them in caravans.
“I think I came up with that name but somebody did. It’s a great name. Caravan.”
“Do you know the word skedaddle? It means skedaddle”
And then, in his most recent instance of butchering the English language, Trump told the press during a meeting of his cabinet earlier this week that the US B2 bombers which struck Iran’s nuclear facilities in June “flew for 37 straight hours”.
He said on Tuesday: “They didn’t stop. They went skedaddle. You know the word, skedaddle? It means skedaddle.
“They dropped the bombs and somebody said, ‘skedaddle, let’s get the hell out of here’.”
The president of the United States, everybody…
Why not read…
- One essential item may get a 200 per cent tariff thanks to Trump
- Has Trump learned nothing? Over 2,000 NASA employees set to be let go
Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter
How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.