Maddow Blog-Team Trump keeps claiming credit for coming up with phrases that already existed

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The White House claiming that the president “came up with” the “peace through strength” motto is part of a weird rhetorical pattern.

It’s weird how often Trump and his team claim he “came up with” words and phrases that have been around for generations:
- “peace through strength”
- “prime the pump”
- “equalizing”
- “caravans” www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-06-24T18:48:41.157Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/team-trump-keeps-claiming-credit-coming-phrases-already-existed-rcna214741

“Si vis pacem, para bellum is a Latin phrase that emerged in the fourth century that means ‘If you want peace, prepare for war,’” O’Brien explained. “The concept’s origin dates back even further, to the second-century Roman emperor Hadrian, to whom is attributed the axiom, ‘Peace through strength — or, failing that, peace through threat.’”

In other words, the adage “peace through strength” is nearly two millennia old. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt might not know that.
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3lsbm2gb36w2a

Link to tweet

“Nobody knows what it means to accomplish peace through strength better than President Trump,” she told Fox News this week. “He is the one who came up with that motto and that foreign policy doctrine, and he successfully implemented it in his first term.”

Right off the bat, it’s probably worth mentioning that Trump offers a poor example of “peace through strength,” given that he is neither strong nor peaceful. Similarly, the idea that the president “came up with that motto” is bizarre, even by this White House’s standards, given how often officials in the United States and around the world have used the phrase for generations......

Perhaps the most notable example came early on in the president’s first term when he sat down with journalists from The Economist and explained that he was cutting taxes, despite a growing budget deficit, because “we have to prime the pump.”

Trump added, “Have you heard that expression before, for this particular type of an event?” When the editor from The Economist said he was, of course, familiar with the metaphor, the president concluded, “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.”

He was not responsible for “prime the pump,” which was in use long before Trump was even born.

To expect honesty from this White House is obviously unwise, but — even by Team Trump standards — pretending over and over again that the president “came up with” words and phrases that have long existed is quite weird.

[tanyev]

1. They gonna take credit for "fetch" next?