Donald Trump is about to enter a new era as president of the United States and many are anticipating the next four years are going to be interesting, to say the least.
Mr Trump has always had a unique way of expressing himself – through his raucous rally speeches and frenzied Twitter account, Mr Trump created slogans and insults, or resurrected old, incendiary terms.
His remarks evoke a variety of feelings, including fear, rage, and pride. Although, perplexity is frequently the most common response.
Here are 10 amusing words or phrases Mr Trump has been associated with over the years.
Alternative facts
In a Meet the Press interview on January 22, 2017, US counsellor to the president Kellyanne Conway used the term “alternative facts” to defend White House press secretary Sean Spicer's untrue claim regarding the number of people who attended Mr Trump's first inauguration as US president.
Ms Conway claimed that Mr Spicer was providing “alternative facts” when he was asked to explain why Mr Spicer would “utter a provable falsehood” during the Chuck Todd interview.
“Look, alternative facts are not facts. They're falsehoods,” Mr Todd responded.
Bigly
It was during the 2016 presidential debates that Mr Trump first used the word “bigly” against Hillary Clinton.
“I’m going to cut taxes bigly, and you’re going to raise taxes bigly,” he said.
The phrase warranted a discussion after the debate, with some contending that Mr Trump was using the word “big league” while others countered that listening intently yields “bigly”.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word is an adverbial version of “big”.
Enemy of the people
Mr Trump frequently referred to journalists and politicians who were critical of him as the enemy of the people. Similar to the phrase “enemy of the state”, enemy of the people also comes from the Latin "hostis publicus", which means "a public enemy of the Roman Empire”.
Hoax
Mr Trump dismissed his impeachment, the Russia probe, and climate change as hoaxes. CNN's Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter pointed out in August 2020 that the president had already used the word more than 250 times that year.
This inspired Mr Stelter to title his book, Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth, Hoax.
Maga
Maga stands for “Make America great again” and is a Ronald Reagan-inspired catchphrase that Mr Trump popularised at rallies, on caps, and on a plethora of other items.
The term Maga is also used to describe Mr Trump's political base. In addition to being used by Mr Trump's fans and detractors, the slogan became a pop cultural phenomenon and gave rise to a plethora of variations in the fields of politics, entertainment, and the arts. It was also used as the name of the Super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. (As a Super PAC, or Super Political Action Committee, it can raise unlimited money for campaigns to support Mr Trump.)
Quid pro quo
The Trump-Ukraine incident involving the term “quid pro quo” was a significant political scandal that led to the first impeachment of Donald Trump. It began when a whistle-blower alleged Mr Trump had pressured Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
The House of Representatives impeached Trump on December 18, 2019, on two charges: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, but the Senate later acquitted him. When discussing the Trump-Ukraine incident during this first impeachment, Mr Trump and his supporters often said "there was no quid pro quo", to deny there was an exchange of favours or benefits.
The Latin phrase means “something given or received for something else”.
Witch-hunt
Mr Trump accused the American legal system of being a “witch-hunt” against him. He claimed the 91 felony charges against him were politically motivated to restrict his ability to run for president in 2024.
Collusion delusion
Special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Mr Trump's election campaign's potential co-operation with Russia took up the majority of the first half of his administration. Intelligence agencies in the US said Russian president Vladimir Putin ran an effort to influence the first presidential vote in Mr Trump's favour. Mr Mueller ultimately made a strong case that the president obstructed justice, but he refrained from claiming that collaboration occurred, which led Mr Trump's supporters to scream “collusion delusion”.
Mr Trump made a reference to collusion delusion at a rally in 2019.
He said: “After three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead. The collusion delusion is over.”
China virus
Mr Trump often referred to Covid-19 as the “China virus” and “kung flu”, placing Asian Americans at risk of discrimination. The virus is thought to have originated in Wuhan, China.
Alt-right
Alt-white is a white nationalist, far-right movement. The alt-right is mostly an online phenomena that began in the United States in the late 2000s before gaining traction and spreading to other nations in the mid-2010s.
Steve Bannon referred to Breitbart News as "the platform for the alt-right" when he was its owner.
Breitbart News served as a virtual gathering place for Mr Trump's 2016 campaign backers. The administration of the organisation, together with former employee Milo Yiannopoulos, sought out story ideas from neo-Nazi and white supremacist organisations and individuals and attempted to promote and market their beliefs.
Later on, for Mr Trump's first presidential campaign, Mr Bannon became Mr Trump's chief strategist.
Mr Trump has not explicitly used alt-right or alt-white to describe his own views or supporters, but his presidency and campaign strategies have been linked to the mainstreaming of far-right politics and these terms.
