President Donald Trump has a certain way of words.
Trump, 79, regularly speaks to the public using his sometimes-confusing communication style. The Republican politician has even claimed to have invented new words that already existed.
In May 2025, Trump addressed the nation about his proposal to dramatically lower drug prices in America. His speech included an ad-libbed line that left many listeners scratching their heads.
“Basically, what we’re doing is equalizing. There’s a new word that I came up with, which is probably the best word,” Trump said about attempting to match drug prices in Europe.
The New York City-bred businessman continued, “We’re gonna equalize where we’re all gonna pay the same. We’re gonna pay what Europe’s gonna pay.”
At the time, Trump was ridiculed for claiming he introduced the word “equalize” to the English language. “The Daily Show” presenter Jon Stewart took aim at the president over the gaffe.
“Europe, eureka, Euclid. Yeah, here it is. ‘Equalize.’ I thought it sounded familiar,” Stewart told his television audience after searching through a dictionary he placed on his desk.
According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, “equalize” was first used in 1599. The fact that the word is over 400 years old led to people joining Stewart in mocking the current commander in chief.
“A new word that he came up with says the guy with the second-grade vocabulary,” a user on the Implausible Blog’s Instagram page posted on the social media platform.
Additionally, one individual on the app commented, “This can’t be real.” A third person joked, “Probably find it in the dictionary next to equalize.”
“What a silly man,” a Trump critic declared. Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington’s action movie got a shout out when someone wrote, “Pretty sure Denzel was in ‘The Equalizer’ in 2014.”
“To be fair… when you have the vocabulary of a toddler, there are a lot of new words to come up with,” one poster quipped.
Another person pleaded for the Trump administration to be over, writing, “When will it stop? Please make it stop.” However, a defender of the MAGA leader pushed back, “It’s a joke y’all. Grow a f–kin’ pair.”
Trump has repeatedly insisted he popularized certain words and phrases throughout his time in the global political spotlight over the last decade.
In a 2017 interview with “The Economist” publication, Trump took credit for “prime the pump.” Merriam-Webster shot down the former “The Apprentice” reality show star on Twitter (now X).
“‘Pump priming’ has been used to refer to government investment expenditures since at least 1933,” a tweet from the Merriam-Webster account read.
Trump made another outlandish assertion in 2017 during an appearance on the Trinity Broadcasting Network with Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who now serves as the president’s ambassador to Israel.
“The media is — really, the word, one of the greatest of all terms I’ve come up with, is ‘fake,’” Trump said to Huckabee. “I guess other people have used it, perhaps, over the years, but I’ve never noticed it.”
Trump has also focused on the word “groceries” in the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election. He credited the term for his win over his Democratic opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I won on groceries. It’s a very simple word – groceries. Like almost… who uses the word? I started using the word,” he said in a post-election interview with NBC News in December.
During an April 2025 speech at the White House, he again zeroed in on groceries, calling the word “old-fashioned” and “beautiful,” suggesting that the common term was outdated or extraordinary.
Trump is credited for the nonsensical “covfefe” which he introduced to the world in a May 2017 Twitter post during his first term as president. The likely typographical error became an internet meme before he deleted the tweet six hours after initially sharing it.
A new covfefe moment may have taken place again on Aug. 17, 2025. Trump shared a one-word post on his Truth Social app. He simply wrote “Bela” without any context or explanation.
