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{{Useful Notes}}
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{{cleanup|Despite the warning box above, somebody has dumped partisan text into this article. We do not censor for politics, but that means both sides need to be supported. This page needs to be brought back to a neutral point of view and the focus of the page brought back to tropes.}}
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{{POTUS|[[Barack Obama]]|[[Joe Biden]]}}
[[File:Potus45.jpg|thumb|400px]]
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'''Donald John Trump''' is the 45th President of the United States of America, succeeding [[Barack Obama]]. One of the few presidents to be known outside of political circles before his run, he was originally a real estate mogul known for [[Egopolis|slapping his name]] on the front of his innumerable hotels, casinos, resorts and golf courses. Prior to transferring his business assets to his children, most of his capital was rooted in New York City, where he owned several million square feet of property, including ''half of the Empire State Building''. And prior to 2015 he held joint-ownership over the Miss Universe pageant, also encompassing Miss USA and Miss Teen USA. This is a secondary achievement to Donald's comb-over, which rivals any architecture he's built.
He also hosted [[The Apprentice (TV series)|The Apprentice]], until [http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/nbc-officially-fires-donald-trump-celebrity-apprentice he got kicked out] for his [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/election-2016-donald-trump-defends-calling-mexican-immigrants-rapists/ controversial opinions] about Mexican immigrants.<ref>{{quote|"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems...they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."|'''Donald Trump''', in his presidential campaign announcement, June 16, 2015}}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150710152015/http://www.unionleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=
In [[The Seventies]], Trump inherited his real estate business from his father Fredrick (rechristening it "The Trump Organization", natch). Following a five-year apprenticeship under his dad, Donald relocated to New York City to begin his career in earnest. He went on to gather up Manhattan's most profitable properties like so many vacant ''[[Monopoly (game)|Monopoly]]'' squares.
His [[The Eighties|1987]] semi-autobiographical book, ''The Art of the Deal'', sold ''extremely'' well as people began to identify him with American entrepreneurship and shrewd power brokering. It was around this time that Trump started to appear [[As Himself]] in television [[Dom Com]]s and films, including cameos in ''[[Home Alone]] 2'' and ''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air]]'', where the characters invariably treat him with a reverence usually reserved for royalty. His golden boy image took a beating in [[The Nineties]] as the result of bankruptcies, a much-publicized extramarital affair, and mounting debt (partly as a result of the 1980s recession), but he managed to bounce back. He even has his officially licensed and voiced video game.
From 2004 to 2015, Trump starred in ''[[The Apprentice (TV series)|The Apprentice]]'', his own reality TV series (created by [[Mark Burnett]], the brains behind ''[[Survivor (TV series)|Survivor]]'') on [[NBC]]<ref>Some of his children (Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump) were advisers to the show until 2015.</ref>. The show consists of a selection of candidates competing against each other for an open slot in one of Trump's companies. The program was wildly successful and remains one of the highest-rated reality shows to date. He has since been replaced with [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]].
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In 2011, Trump briefly ran in the Republican presidential nomination primary for the 2012 election, seen by some as a ratings stunt. He was a proponent of the "[[Conspiracy Theorist|birther]]" theory, so his campaign was ended after the birther train was stopped for good by [[Barack Obama]] providing his long-form birth certificate. Despite this, Trump maintained that there were still "questions" about Obama's birth certificate until he dropped the issue in 2016.
In the 2020 general election, Donald Trump faced off against [[Joe Biden]]. Despite both being fairly unpopular candidates, and televised debates leading up to the election quickly devolving into a mutual mudslinging spectacle, Joe Biden managed to pull ahead and claim victory, succeeding him as the 46th President of the United States.
He is the oldest first-term president and the ''only'' US president who has never held prior political office or military rank.<ref>He joins [[William Howard Taft]] and [[Herbert Hoover]] on the list of never holding ''elected'' office or military rank, but Donald Trump was never appointed to any office either.</ref> and his wife Melania Trump is the second foreign-born First Lady<ref>English-born Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, First Lady to John Quincy Adams (6th President of the United States), was the first.</ref>
He is the third president to have been impeached (twenty-one years less a day after [[Bill Clinton]] was), the first to have been impeached during his first term of office, and the first to be impeached twice. He is also the first president to have been [[Persona Non Grata|banned from all major social media sites for misleading information and inciting violence]]. As of June 2023, he is the first former President to be indicted on felony charges.
As of March 2024, the 2024 presidential election has become a rerun of the 2020 election, with Biden and Trump both running for re-election. Both men are using the same campaign strategies that they used in their 2020 election campaigns. If Trump ends up winning, he would be the second person to serve nonconsecutive terms in office, the first being [[Grover Cleveland]].
Some editors would probably have some triumphant line of argument to add here in support or opposition of any of those, but [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|they should know better]].
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{{creatortropes}}
== A-C ==
* [[Ad Hominem]]: Has been on the giving and receiving end of this often.
* [[Adam Westing]]:
* [[All Issues Are Political Issues]]: While President, he
* [[All Women Are Lustful]]: Trump's view of women, especially according to the Pussygate tape.
{{quote|And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. [[Beat|*beat*]] Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything.}}
* [[Admiring the Abomination]]: Trump has notoriously given praise to several world leaders viewed as controversial at best or outright despots at worst. These include [[Vladimir Putin]] of Russia, [[Rodrigo Duterte]] of the Philippines, Xi Jinping of China, and [[Kim Jong Un]] of North Korea (despite Trump previously throwing some shade at Kim and even threatened "fire and fury" against North Korea on Twitter). He once claimed he admired [[Saddam Hussein]] for executing terrorists, and if [[Michael Wolfe]] is truthful in his book ''[[Landslide]]'', he had to be kept by aides from publicly saying positive things about [[Adolf Hitler]] himself.
* [[Animals Hate Him]]: Okay, maybe too broad a generalization, but there was one infamous attempt at a campaign photo shoot with a bald eagle [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1AU4qi7tWg that went rather badly...]
* [[And Stay Out!]]: According to the [https://www.thedailybeast.com/lin-wood-and-michael-flynns-qanon-civil-war-keeps-getting-nuttier-and-sleazier December 1, 2021 "Fever Dreams" column/pocast] on ''[[The Daily Beast]]'' news website, Trump -- who was banned by his successor [[Joe Biden]] from receiving traditional post-Presidency intelligence briefings after the January 6, 2021 insurrection attempt -- has begun claiming that he ''wasn't'' banned, he instead actively ''refused'' to accept those briefings:
{{quote|“When we reached out to Donald Trump’s office early this week about the reporting we had, and also the details in this newly revised CIA book,” [Fever Dreams co-host Asawin Suebsaeng] relates, “he tried to convince us that his current lack of post-presidency briefings is all his own decision. It was all by his own design…
“It has incredibly huge ‘You didn’t dump me, I broke up with you first’ energy.”}}
* [[Appeal to Popularity]]: This logical fallacy underlies Trump's frequent claims that an unspecified but large number of unknown and anonymous "people" agree with him or certify his opinions and positions as correct. He seeks to validate his statements by counterfeiting a body of people who allegedly agree with him.
* [[Arch Enemy]]: Has several people who've committed themselves to going against him where the feeling's mutual. No need to list any examples - the list that used to be here was quite [[egregious]].
<!-- MOD: Commented out instead of deleted, in case I'm outvoted on the "no need to list any examples" thing. However, the part below where new enemies are listed week-by-week is excessively out of line - one might even say it's Egregious.
** He's hosted two [[Wrestlemania]]s and been an active participant in [[WWE]] promos, highlighted by his "feud" with rival CEO [[Vince McMahon]].
** Not content with prime time, Trump took daytime TV by storm when a [[Volleying Insults|tabloid war]] erupted between himself and Rosie O'Donnell, then-host of the American morning talk show ''The View''.
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* [[Artistic License Law]]:
** "I have an Article II where I have the right to do whatever I want as president
** His apparent belief that legal cases are decided for whoever shouts loudest, regardless of evidence.
** His claim that being [[Persona Non Grata|banned from all major social media sites]] at the end of his presidency was a violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
** As of March 30, 2021, [https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/30/trump-campaign-non-disclosure-agreement-478648 a federal judge has ruled that the Non-Disclosure Agreements Trump had his campaign workers sign were so broad as to be unenforceable], suggesting that Trump's desire to control his employees' speech exceeds his understanding of the laws regarding the legal ways of doing so.
** Similarly, in [https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-loses-case-against-omarosa-who-wrote-tell-all-white-n1280277 late September 2021], a New York arbitrator ruled that the NDA ex-White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman was required to sign did not adhere to typical legal standards and was "vague, indefinite, and therefore void and unenforceable". The arbitrator summarized the agreement as imposing on her "an obligation to never say anything remotely critical of Mr. Trump, his family or his or his family members' businesses for the rest of her life", and ruled that the document did not qualify as a binding contract under New York law.
** In an interview with Sean Hannity on September 21, 2022 regarding his possession of classified documents at Mar-a-lago, Trump solemnly declared that as President he could magically declassify documents just "by thinking about it", and that despite there being a formal procedure by which documents are declassified, "There doesn't have to be a process".
* [[Artistic License Medicine]]: His [https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-suggests-injection-disinfectant-beat-coronavirus-clean-lungs-n1191216 notorious speech] where he suggested drinking bleach or using an "injection" of disinfectant to clear a Covid patient's lungs is often regarded as one of his costliest mistakes.
* [[Attack! Attack! Attack!]]: Trump rarely if ever backs down. No matter the potential foolishness or folly, he will almost inevitably double down when called on it, usually citing [[Appeal to Popularity|unspecified anonymous "people" who agree with him or certify him as being correct]].
** A case in point would be his defense in 2019 of calling for the death penalty for the [https://time.com/5597843/central-park-five-trump-history/ so-called "Central Park Five"] in 1989, even after the five had been exonerated of the rape and beating of jogger Trisha Meili when murderer and serial rapist Matias Reyes ''confessed to the crime'' once DNA evidence identified him. With no evidence whatsoever, Trump painted the five as still being criminals guilty of unknown ''other'' crimes to justify his demand for their executions.
* [[Attention Whore]]: No doubt as a consequence of his [[Narcissist|narcissism]], Trump craves and revels in constant attention, and will do or say ''anything'' to draw and keep that attention on him. His rage and the subsequent lawsuits he filed when he was banned from his usual bully pulpits in the wake of the January 6, 2021 insurrection attempt are typical of him when he is denied the adulation he thinks he is due from the American people.
{{quote|He lives in terror of being irrelevant.
|Chris Cillizza, [http://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_74bd112ff36facd1f8e9c922fc99eaec CNN.com, September 8, 2021]}}
:* Political commentator Kurt Bardella used the Trope Name directly in September 2022:
{{quote|He’s an attention whore and everything always has to be about Donald. He has to make himself the centre of the universe so he goes out there and plays this little flirtatious ‘will he, won’t he?’ card and it’s just designed to continue to keep that conversation going.
|Kurt Bardella, ''The Guardian''<ref>Kurt Bardella [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/10/donald-trump-2024-election-big-tease-republicans The Guardian, September 10, 2022</ref>}}
* [[Author Vocabulary Calendar]]: Trump's frequent use of "failing" as a pejorative for any news outlet which reported anything negative about him, as though impugning the profit margins of organizations such as ''The New York Times'' was relevant to their journalistic integrity. His insistence that any television program which covered him negatively was always losing or low in ratings also testifies to Trump's obsession with winning as the only meaningful metric in life.
* [[Awesome McCoolname]]: Trump, as the words has several meanings, including "surpass (something) by saying or doing something better". His ancestral name was Drumpf, which was changed to Trump [[w:Donald_Trump (Last Week Tonight)|sometime in the 17th century]], and has picked up steam as a pejorative (often one that falls into [[Godwin's Law]]) among his many liberal critics and detractors.
* [[Badass]]: He got a very credible threat to his life at least two weeks before his presidential election, to the point the Secret Service evacuated him from the speech he was giving, but instead of letting it stick, he simply went right back to the podium a few minutes later and continued speaking. Throughout his entire presidential campaign and into his presidency, Trump has been the target of more than one confirmed assassination attempt and refused to quit appearing in public or be cowed into doing so.
** [[Badass Grandpa]]: Trump was in his late sixties when the aforementioned threat happened, and he's now an actual grandfather.
* [[Bad Liar]]: Trump's "Pants on Fire!" count on Politifact (a designation given when "The statement is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim") is 179 (as of August 2023), which is roughly 18% of his statements as a whole.
* [[Gannon Banned|Bannon Banned]]: Quite a bit of strife in the political fandom was caused by Steve Bannon's appointment as a quasi-Chief of Staff.
* [[Believing Their Own Lies]]:
* [[Big Bulky Bomb]]: He became the first president to deploy a MOAB, the so-called "Mother of All Bombs" (which itself is a [[Shout-Out]] to Saddam Hussein's "mother of all wars" boast) in 2017.
* [[Big Lie]]: Ever since losing the November 2020 election, Trump and his allies -- including Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz -- claimed without proof that [[Joe Biden]]'s victory had been the result of a vast program of voter fraud executed by the Democrats. While they repeatedly insisted that they had evidence to prove this assertion, none ever materialized and no court (out of sixty lawsuits) ruled in their favor. One lawsuit filed with the Supreme Court of the United States by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in early December 2020 actually claimed that [[Insane Troll Logic|the complete lack of any evidence of voter fraud was in fact ''proof'' of the existence of a massive conspiracy that had ''perfectly'' hidden all traces of both its existence and its efforts to "undermine" the "true" results of the election.]] Regardless of the absence of any proof, the members of Trump's [[Cult of Personality]] uncritically accepted these claims, which directly led to the mob assault upon the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
** Attempts to "prove" that organized voter fraud "stole" the election continued through the summer of 2021, with recounts and audits in states with sympathetic Republican governors or legislatures -- as many as four in some states. As of this writing, all have failed to show ''anything'' close to what Trump's increasingly strident supporters demand that they should -- and one in fact revealed that Biden had actually won with ''more'' votes than initially counted.
** In late August 2022 Trump outright demanded his immediate reinstatement as President, insisting nearly ''two years after the fact'' that the 2020 election was "stolen" despite no evidence having emerged to prove his claims.
* [[Blatant Lies]]: Has been [https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/ accused of doing this frequently], though not without reason or proof. The ''Washington Post'' began keeping a record false or misleading claims (lies), [https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.8c818bcde19a totaling 492 in his first 100 days in office], [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/05/01/president-trump-has-made-3001-false-or-misleading-claims-so-far/ 3001 in his first 466 days], [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/08/01/president-trump-has-made-4229-false-or-misleading-claims-in-558-days/ 4,229 in his first 558 days] and [https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?utm_term=.b83bfa941966 6420 in his first 649 days]. His lie count varies, but in the first 466 days of his Presidency, he averaged 6.5 'false or misleading claims' a day, whereas in June and July of 2018, [https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/trumps-escalating-war-on-the-truth-is-on-purpose he averaged 16 lies per day]. This dramatic uptick seemingly [[Nothing to See Here|coincided with]] increased pressure from the Mueller investigation. The exponential lie count continued under the aforementioned pressure, coupled with the run up to the Mid-Term elections on November 6, 2018. According to [https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?utm_term=.b83bfa941966 the graph in the ''Washington Post''], Trump has lied/ made false claims over 1000 times in October 2018].
** As of November 1st, 2018, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/when-i-can-i-tell-the-truth-trump-pushes-back-against-his-peddling-of-falsehoods/2018/11/01/e8278d68-ddbe-11e8-85df-7a6b4d25cfbb_story.html?utm_term=.d0db42789b88 Trump claims to tell the truth "when [he<nowiki>]</nowiki> can"]
** As of December 10th, 2018, as part of their Fact Checker, the ''Washington Post'' created the ultimate category of lie, or misleading claim. Based on their prior "[[Pinocchio]]" scale whereby a claim is award 1 (shading of truth) to 4 (lying) [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/about-the-fact-checker/?utm_term=.2b9b75331487 Pinocchio's] depending on its relative truthfulness; the new category is called a "Bottomless Pinocchio" and stands for any false claim repeated publicly more than 20 times. These claims constitute [https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/fact-checker-most-repeated-disinformation/?utm_term=.7ea2e566af6a ''disinformation'']. The biggest Pinocchio's of the year were given [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/14/biggest-pinocchios/?utm_term=.8604e49c9f53their own page].
** "I do not tolerate ANY extreme violence."
** [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/19/george-conway-what-i-really-believe/ George Conway] has described him as "the most prodigiously documented liar in American history, if not the history of the world."
** As of the end of his presidency, the ''Washington Post'' credited him with [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-false-or-misleading-claims-total-30573-over-four-years/ over 30,500 false or misleading claims] during the four years he was in office.
** Trump claims a golf handicap of 2.5. (When it comes to golf handicaps, lower is better.) In July 2023, [https://www.sbnation.com/golf/2023/7/15/23796059/donald-trumps-hilarious-wedge-shank-leaves-fans-trolling-former-commander-in-chief professional golfers assessed it at closer to 30].
* [[Broke Episode]]: Trump's businesses have filed for bankruptcy six times.
* [[Brooklyn Rage]]:
* [[Brutal Honesty]]: He is quite outspoken, especially where things such as [[Political Correctness Gone Mad|excessive political correctness]] are concerned.
* [[The Bully]]:
** Trump received his [[The Cameo|cameo]] in ''[[
** In early January 2021, Trump attempted to bully his vice president Mike Pence into illegally calling the election for him by browbeating him: [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/us/politics/mike-pence-trump.html "You can either go down in history as a patriot, or you can go down in history as a pussy."]
* [[The Caligula]]:
* [[Calvin Ball]]: Trump would ignore many unwritten "rules" for running a successful campaign and win
** He completely ignored the "rule" that a campaign should "never put a candidate in a hat if you can avoid it" <ref>One notable violation leading to failure was Dukakis wearing a tank commander helmet and looking horrible in it, providing Bush Sr. with material for successful ads against him.</ref> and not only made his "Make America Great Again" hat iconic, but successfully wore a hard hat when accepting an endorsement from West Virginia Coal Association <ref>An endorsement he admitted right there isn't hard when running against Hillary, who said she wants their employers "out of business"</ref>.
** Trump was the first major party candidate in 40 years not to release his income tax return. He claims an ongoing audit prevented him from doing so.
* [[The Cameo]]: Trump has [[w:
* [[Catch Phrase]]: "You're fired." Inverted regularly in the season finales of ''[[The Apprentice (TV series)|The Apprentice]]'', when he announces "You're hired."
** "Make America Great Again" (MAGA for short) was his
** Trump's other 2016 campaign [[
** Trump's now-suspended Twitter feed was populated with tweets filled with the catchphrases, or [[Stock Phrases]], [
* [[The Chosen One]]: Repeatedly invoked and lampshaded by Trump himself, as well as some of his allies. He
{{quote|"I am the chosen one."|Donald J. Trump, [https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-49429661 21 August 2019]}}
** This is his explicit role in the QAnon
* [[Compensating for Something]]: Trump's resurgence in business was accompanied by the, erm... [[All Psychology Is Freudian|erection]] of a 68-story Trump Tower in Manhattan's Upper East Side. Pleased with the finished product, he sprouted '''more''' "Trump Towers" in major cities throughout the U.S.
** Also while on the campaign trail, he assured America that despite his small hands, he had "no problems in that department".
** Has been attributed to him in other areas "has the ''best'' words", is "''like'' a smart person", has "''one of the best'' temperaments" and, the clincher, he is a "''very'' stable genius."
* [[Con Man]]: A frequent charge leveled at him over the years, both formally and informally.
** [[w:Trump University|Trump University]] (also known as the Trump Wealth Institute and Trump Entrepreneur Initiative LLC), which he founded and which was owned and operated by the Trump Organization, was an unaccredited school which claimed to train students in real estate, asset management, entrepreneurship, and wealth creation. It was infamous for high-pressure sales tactics and misleading marketing, and was the subject of fraud and racketeering investigations in several states, plus two class-action suits in federal courts. No less an eminence than the arch-conservative publication ''The National Review'' described it as [https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/trump-university-scam "a massive scam"].
** He was also described as such during his presidency, but no more so than for his end-of-2020 fund raising, where his apparatchiks claimed that any donated money would go to fighting the confirmation of Joe Biden or to help the Georgia Senate run-offs, but (as explicitly noted in the fine print) most of which actually went to Trump's own political action committee.
** So described by attorney and Trump critic George Conway in [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/19/george-conway-what-i-really-believe/ "What I Really Believe"], an opinion piece published in the ''Washington Post'' on January 19, 2021:
{{quote|I believe he’s a con man, a pathological liar ... I believe he doesn’t care about, and may not even fully comprehend, the difference between truth and lies, between honesty and mendacity.}}
* [[Conspiracy Theorist]]:
** Starting well before his political career, he has promoted dozens of them; among the most troubling were his assertion that Barack Obama was not born in America and thus not eligible to be President ("Birtherism"), that Muslims in Jersey City were celebrating the 9/11 attacks by partying in the streets as it was happening, that Ted Cruz's father was involved in John F. Kennedy's assassination, that there was widespread voter fraud in 2016 (the election he ''won''), that there was even more voter fraud in 2020, that Obama was "wiretapping" his campaign, Hillary Clinton ordered Vince Foster and dozens of others murdered (not a conspiracy theory he started, in his defense, but one he seems adamant is true), Global Warming is a "Chinese hoax", and that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was murdered (which he did seem to make up himself). He gladly took up QAnon, the whackjob right-wing movement that was convinced that all Democrats were blood-drinking, Satan-worshiping pedophiles and that Trump was [[The Messiah|a savior]] who would defeat them all and make the world safe for fascism.
* [[Consummate Liar]]: Averted. Trump's apparent uncontrollable compulsion to make himself look better or more knowledgeable at all times has led to him lying about things that can easily be verified or which were witnessed by thousands or millions of other people -- starting with the claim that his 2017 Inauguration had a larger crowd than any other Inauguration ever, especially [[Barack Obama]]'s -- a claim immediately disproven by the National Parks Service, which released [https://www.cnet.com/news/nps-donald-trump-inauguration-barack-obama-crowd-size/ side-by-side aerial photographs] demonstrating just how tiny the turnout was for Trump, and how immense it was for Obama.
** In the interests of fairness, it should be noted that more than a year and a half after his inauguration, the characterization of this as a deliberate lie was challenged by then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who claimed that [https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/07/politics/trump-inauguration-photos/index.html Trump's boast was based on cropped photos provided by an anonymous NPS photographer which left out the vast tracts of empty space that were filled with people for Obama's inauguration, and thus Trump hadn't ''lied'', he'd been ''misled''.] This had the problem of contradicting Trump's comment that the boast was based on his own on-the-spot observation of the crowd during the ceremony.
* [[Crunchtastic]]: Trump has a ''bigly'' vocabulary of the best words. Even if a few are made up. (See, for example, [[w:Donald_Trump_on_social_media#"Covfefe"|Covfefe]]).<ref>Unfortunately, the [[wikipedia:COVFEFE Act|COVFEFE Act]] (intended to extend to Twitter posts the same requirement of preservation that other Presidential communications have) died in committee, so future generations might not have access to this unique vocabulary.</ref>
* [[Cult of Personality]]: [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/12/24/paleologos-on-poll-breaking-down-donald-trump-cult-like-following/4037335001/ His following], who comprise approximately a third of Republican voters by best counts, and who uncritically accept everything he says.
== D-F ==
* [[Didn't Think This Through]]:
** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8FvHBOdBZg A common opinion of his critics] is that simply running for President was the biggest mistake of his life, as it was a position he was unprepared for with no experience or background in politics. Being unable to accept criticism in a position that was so public and so under public scrutiny has led to legal issues and unwanted revelations. Many of his detractors have also stated that simply thinking a few minutes before hitting the "Send" button on Twitter might have solved a lot of his problems.
** The most notable example was the January 6, 2021 Capitol Building riot, which he at least partially encouraged. Breaking and entering the seat of the United States government (something that did not happen even during the [[American Civil War]]) and assaulting police is ''not'' the right way to convince everyone that the opposing candidate "stole" the election. The blatant act of terrorism caused Trump to lose much of his already waning support, rendered him [[Persona Non Grata]] with all major social media outlets and a number of companies which had formerly done business with him, and also caused the press to refer to him with words like "fascist", "traitor", and "Nazi", which they had, up to then, tried hard to avoid using. Whatever the case, it was obvious to everyone [[Captain Obvious|it did not improve his political career or reputation]], likely ruining it and that of many others.
** The potential side-effect of the storm of pardons he issued in his final weeks in office. Accepting a pardon by American law is an admission of guilt by the pardoned party, but worse, doing so removes the recipient's protection against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment (because they can't be prosecuted they can't incriminate themselves); consequently they can be compelled to testify -- in this case, against Trump. It took several weeks after the first pardon for this to occur to ''anyone'' in Trump's White House (at which point it was too late); Federal investigators, of course, were aware of this and more than happy to trade a few underlings for Trump himself.
*** Averted when Trump was reportedly dissuaded from pardoning his children in his last hours in office by aides who raised the spectre of them being forced to testify against him.
** Possibly the worst example to date was [https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/25/trump-white-nationalist-nick-fuentes-kanye-00070825 inviting known hate group leader Nick Fuentes to a party at Mar-a-Lago] in November 2022, an act that has resulted in many of his former allies and defenders condemning him for it. As of this writing, he has yet to apologize or even admit it was a bad idea.
*** Except it went [[From Bad to Worse]] a week later when public scorn for it led to an angry rant claiming the [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/03/trump-constitution-truth-social/ Constitution must be "terminated" to reinstall him as President.] The response was almost exclusively condemnation, even by members of his own party. In the grand Trump tradition he then began denying he'd ever said such a thing and described all media reports about it as fabrications. As a final kick to the teeth, Fuentes himself condemned Trump, claiming his announcement for his reelection showed Trump was too moderate.
** His tendency to make verbal gaffes tends to make for some statements that probably needed some more thought put into them.
* [[Dodgy Toupee]]: Often when someone wants to make a sketch or joke about Donald Trump they may take the easy angle and mock the obvious toupee. ''[[Meet the Spartans]]'' did this where [[Catch Phrase|he fires]] Spiderman and cuts his web but he sticks it back onto his head and pulls the wig off.
** Lisa Lampanelli did this funnier than anyone: "What do you say to a barber to get him to cut your hair like that? I fucked your daughter?"
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* [[The Don]]: Numerous observers, especially toward the end of 2020, commented on how Trump ran his administration like a crime family. Even earlier, it was noticed how often Trump [[Busman's Vocabulary|used criminal argot]] in the context of his presidency, such as referring to whistleblowers as "rats" and congratulating those who had refused to cooperate with investigations for not "ratting him out".
** [https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/532442-former-solicitor-general-says-trump-is-talking-like-mafia-boss-and "This is the way that people in organized crime rings talk," Neal Katyal, who served as acting solicitor general under President Obama, said of President Trump's language in his call trying to pressure Georgia's secretary of state to overturn the election results.]
* [[Dude, Where's My Reward?]]: Trump was obsessed for a while with winning the Nobel Peace Prize, likely out of a desire to "one-up" his predecessor. He made a very big deal when he was simply nominated for it, despite being one of 318 candidates<ref>Being nominated for a Nobel Prize is actually very easy, as there are thousands of individuals with the authority to make a nomination. Only ''two'' people nominated Trump. And historically, some of the most notorious of world leaders - including Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, both of whom were nominated by more than two people with authority - have been nominated. Adolf Hitler himself received a nomination by “an anti-fascist member of the Swedish parliament who never intended his submission to be taken seriously,” and later withdrew it. Bottom line, a nomination for a Nobel Prize is nothing to be proud of unless you are the actual winner.</ref> and ultimately didn't win.
* [[Eagle Land]]: <!-- MOD: Quoting from the trope description for Eagle Land: "This Trope is about outsiders looking at the US" Commenting out the text discussing insiders looking at themselves, because that isn't this trope. Text begins: Trump endorses and aspires to Type 1 (America, Fuck Yeah! with some debate about how successful he's been at it). His political campaigning, both before and after being elected, is Type 1 related, emphasizing how he wants to help improve the U.S and make Americans proud of their country once more ("Make America Great Again"/"Keep America Great"). Trump's detractors consider him the embodiment of many of the qualities of Type 2. --> Foreign observers ignore his statements and look at his actions - pulling out of international organizations, putting in place entry restrictions against people who believe a different faith than he does, tearing up free-trade treaties - as evidence that he is firmly in Type 2.
* [[Egopolis]]: Trump 'brands' his buildings with the '''''Trump''''' name displayed prominently, often placing large gold [[Calling Card|"T"]] symbols throughout the interior rooms.
* [[Empty Promise]]: Usually played straight just like almost every other politician of the early 21st century, but Inverted with his promise to "accept no salary". Federal law forbids anyone from working for the government for no salary, but [https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/promise/1341/take-no-salary/ Trump donated all of his salary to various government departments during his tenure as President].
* [[Enlistment-Ending Minor Malaise]]: He was spared participation in the [[Vietnam War]] in 1968 when [https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/26/politics/trump-bone-spurs-vietnam-war/index.html his podiatrist diagnosed him] with [https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/heel-spurs-pain-causes-symptoms-treatments heel spurs]. This painful condition that makes walking difficult appears to have resolved itself shortly after the war ended.
* [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]: In the 2016 Presidential campaign, especially since he won.
* [[Epic Fail]]:
** Many of his detractors have noted how hard it is to actually bankrupt a casino (a business whose sole product is money) which Trump [https://celebmix.com/how-many-casinos-did-donald-trump-bankrupt/ managed to do multiple times.]
** His constant insistence that mail-in votes are tampered with or destroyed has caused much of his base to distrust that method, and suppressed far more Republican voters than Democrats, ultimately costing them votes. This continues to be a problem long after the 2020 election, the complete failure of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_California_gubernatorial_recall_election 2021 attempt to recall California Governor Newsome] a good example of the results.
** His support of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Maricopa_County_presidential_ballot_audit Arizona vote audit]. After five months of delays and absurd accusations, the leaked results showed that Biden won the state by even ''more'' votes than previously believed. Some of his detractors have half-jokingly started to ''encourage'' more such audits in other states.
* [[Exaggerated]]: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/book-party/wp/2015/06/17/how-donald-trump-plays-the-press-in-his-own-words/ He calls it "truthful hyperbole" (an oxymoron) in "The Art of The Deal".] Otherwise known as [[Blatant Lies|stretching the truth]].
** He has, according to himself, the best words, the best brain, is ''like'' a smart person, has the best temperament, and knows the "system" better than anyone.
* [[Fair Use]]: ''Defied''. [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Musicians_who_oppose_Donald_Trump%27s_use_of_their_music As this article shows], he has a long history of using works of music at his events without the consent or approval of the creators.
* [[Favoritism Flip Flop]]: it has been pointed out that Trump has a tendency to express agreement with the last person with whom he's spoken. A good example was after the 2018 Parkland shooting in Florida, when he seemed to favor gun control on the Wednesday (28/2/18), [https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-flips-on-gun-control-after-nra-sits-him-down-in-oval-office only to backtrack on the Thursday (1/3/18) after a meeting with the NRA].
* [[Fountain of Memes]]: Became a gigantic wellspring of these during his 2016 Presidential campaign and his Presidency, some of which he even encouraged.
* [[Friendly Enemy]]: With Bernie Sanders, who attempted to get the Democrat party's nomination in 2016 but lost narrowly to Hillary Clinton. Trump repeatedly encouraged Sanders during the primary. The media branded it a transparent attempt to peel Bernie voters away from Hillary Clinton, though conceded there might be genuine sympathy. With a third party hacking revealing Democrat internal communications always talked as though Hillary would be the nominee the suggestion the primary was rigged wound up very appropriate.
* [[Frivolous Lawsuit]]: After refusing to concede the 2020 presidential election, Trump or his proxies filed over ''sixty'' lawsuits in attempts to challenge and overturn the election. Only one judge ruled in his favor, and that judge's decision was overturned. Many of these were riddled with spelling, grammar and (worst of all) ''procedural'' errors a first-year law student wouldn't make - like his legal team [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/trump-election-fraud-lawsuit-michigan-minnesota-b1759424.html filing one in the wrong state]. And then there was the [[Insane Troll Logic]] that underlaid some of them...
** Trump also has [https://anti-slapp.org/trump-and-the-first-amendment a history] of of filing SLAPP (“strategic lawsuit against public participation”) suits against anyone who criticizes or offends him, in an attempt to bankrupt them with legal fees or simply intimidate them into shutting up.
{{quote|"I spent a couple of bucks on legal fees, and they spent a whole lot more. I did it to make his life miserable, which I’m happy about."
|[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q{{=}}cache:SEX0cqReQGgJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/that-time-trump-sued-over-the-size-of-hiswallet/2016/03/08/785dee3e-e4c2-11e5-b0fd-073d5930a7b7_story.html+&cd{{=}}4&hl{{=}}en&ct{{=}}clnk&gl{{=}}us "What really gets under Trump’s skin? A reporter questioning his net worth"], ''The Washington Post'', March 8, 2016}}
::One of Trump's (fortunately unachieved) goals as president was to relax libel and other laws so that it would be ''easier'' to use the courts to suppress speech of which he didn't approve.
:* A full summary of Trump's horrendous history of filing these lawsuits [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCwmsZwyYzA&t=9s is displayed here.]
== G-I ==
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** [https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/11/16/toxic-is-oxford-dictionaries-word-year-gaslighting-techlash-are-among-runners-up/The Oxford English Dictionary placed "gaslighting" in the top words of 2018], something The Washington Post credited Trump (among other sources) for ''that''.
{{quote|"The concept has also been applied to political contexts this year, with the term used extensively of President Donald Trump; his frequent assertions that the media are spreading ‘fake news’, and implications that his administration is the sole arbiter of truth, have led to Trump’s presidency of the United States being compared to an abusive relationship."|[https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/word-of-the-year/shortlist-2018 OED shortlist, 2018]}}
* [[Great Wall]]: Invoked by Trump when he promised that he would build a "big beautiful wall" along the United States' southern border to protect poor helpless Americans from ravening hordes of illegal Mexican immigrants. He also promised to make Mexico pay for it, though offered no means of doing so. Only about a hundred yards of it were ever actually erected during his administration, mostly to test various construction methods and designs, and it started collapsing from poor construction and cheap materials before his single term was over.
* [[Hey, You]]: His endorsement for the 2022 Missouri Senate primary was "Eric". Whether he meant Eric Greitens or his opponent Eric Schmidt, [[Refuge in Audacity| he didn't specify]].
* [[Hidden in Plain Sight]]: [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|Assuming Trump wasn't being sarcastic]], he [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/us/politics/donald-trump-russia-clinton-emails.html asked Russia to hack his opponents' emails... live on TV... during a news conference].
* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: Trump's permanent bans from multiple social media platforms have been held up as examples of the right of businesses to deny service to anyone they care to -- a right [[wikipedia:Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission|supported all the way to the Supreme Court by Trump and his conservative backers]], who only imagined it being used by their side in the so-called "culture wars".
* [[Humiliation Conga]]: Trump was on the receiving end of this from [[Barack Obama]] at the end of April 2011. On Wednesday{{when}}, after Trump jumped on the "birther" issue, Obama released the long sought after "long form birth certificate", making Trump look somewhat foolish (though Trump boasted about how proud he was of getting the certificate released; he probably still didn't believe it). On the Saturday, Trump was the subject of more roasting than the President at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. And finally, on the Sunday night, just to make a bad week worse for Trump, ''[[The Apprentice (TV series)|Celebrity Apprentice]]'' [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|was interrupted]] for the news that Obama had ordered a successful raid and killing on Osama bin Laden.
** A documentary by [[Frontline]] has suggested that this was [[It's Personal|the moment]] that Trump decided to seriously run for President, in order to prove everyone wrong.
* [[Ignorant of His Own Ignorance]]: His [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCnKtzQpCSs understanding of uranium is unparalleled]. (See Know-Nothing Know-It-All below for more)
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** Even the Democratic party's own analysts will (in hindsight) give him credit for accomplishing the almost impossible feat of being on the opposite end of both the most lavishly-funded and well-connected political campaign team in history ''and'' the most consistently unfavorable press coverage ever received by a Presidential candidate in the past century and still triumphing over both on sheer determination.
* [[Improbable Hairstyle]]: His hairstyle, toupee or not, is very distinct and hard to shift.
** British Political Cartoonist Dave Brown [https://web.archive.org/web/20190823142228/https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2018/11/07/18/cartoon-8-november-2018.jpg?width=1368&height=912&fit=bounds&format=pjpg&auto=webp&quality=70 regularly] [https://web.archive.org/web/20190823142228/https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2018/11/05/18/cartoon-6-november-2018.jpg?width=1368&height=912&fit=bounds&format=pjpg&auto=webp&quality=70 depicts] Trump's hair as an autonomous and evil looking rodent.
** ''[[Scandinavia and the World]]'' has shown the hairdo as [https://satwcomic.com/the-biggest-and-bestest-hostage-taker a separate entity capable of holding people hostage].
* [[Insane Troll Logic]]: Many, many examples. Leaving out some of his bizarre claims about the 2020 election, there are things like his apparently sincere belief that if COVID-19 testing was reduced or stopped, then there would be fewer people -- maybe even none! -- suffering from COVID-19.
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* [[Irony]]: inverted: Trump claimed to hire the best people, only to systematically fire them one by one, and for a number of them to end up indicted, pleading guilty and then put on trial (Flynn, Manafort, Gates, Cohen etc).
** He launched a tirade of abuse at Omarosa Manigault Newman, calling her a "crazed lowlife" and a "dog". He has known and worked with her for 15 years, and has fired her 4 times (3 times on "The Apprentice", once IRL).
** Even [https://thehill.com/homenews/media/340025-tapper-so-how-is-melanias-anti-cyberbullying-campaign-going his wife Melania can't escape the iron-y grip of Trumpdom]: she advocates for the prevention of cyber-bullying while her husband - ''the most powerful man in the world'' - [
** See [[The Nicknamer]] below: while naming Ted Cruz "Lyin' Ted" and Hillary Clinton "Crooked Hillary", Trump was (and as of early 2021 still is) himself the subject of an ongoing investigation, is ''arguably'' one of the biggest liars on the planet, and is very ''possibly'' crooked.
* [[It Will Never Catch On]]: Outside of his own campaign team the number of political pundits, analysts, or insiders even remotely willing to entertain the idea that Donald Trump could successfully be elected President could literally be counted on the fingers of one hand. Then he proved them wrong by winning.
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* [[It's All About Me]]: Cannot comprehend anything greater than himself, let alone dedicating oneself to such a thing, as shown by comments he made in 2020 admitting his total inability to understand why American soldiers would and did give up their lives for the country (and later calling them "suckers and losers" for doing so).
** He also made it clear on more than one occasion that he did not think that being President meant serving the country, but rather that he was doing it a favor.
** He repeatedly declared in mid-2020 that COVID-19 didn't affect anyone "important", but dropped that claim as soon as he had been diagnosed with
** When his attorney general, William Barr, announced that there was no proof of election fraud after the 2020 election of [[Joe Biden]], Trump cornered him over a dinner in the Oval Office and demanded, [https://www.axios.com/trump-barr-relationship-off-the-rails-b33b3788-e7e9-47fa-84c5-3a0016559eb5.html "Why would you say such a thing? You must hate Trump. There’s no other reason for it. You must hate Trump."]
== J-L ==
* [["Just Joking" Justification]]: The White House staff routinely backpedaled on his more outrageous and controversial pronouncements with a "Just Joking" excuse. A few examples:
** His notorious speech where [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kxG8uJUsWU he asks Russia] for help finding Hillary Clinton's emails, claiming they'd be rewarded? His base will always claim he was just kidding.
** In June 2020, when Trump proudly announced at a rally that he had ordered a slowdown of COVID-19 testing in the middle of the pandemic, [https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-claims-trump-joking-ordered-covid-testing/story?id=71389171 the White House quickly declared that he had been joking].
** Likewise when in April 2020 Trump solemnly recommended that the American people inject disinfectants and drink bleach to cure COVID-19, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/24/trumps-ridiculous-defense-his-comments-about-injecting-disinfectants/ the White House helpfully clarified that he was being "sarcastic".]
**Similarly, the White House excused his fervent declaration that Democrats were "treasonous" and "un-American" for staying seated during his 2018 State of the Union speech as [https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-joking-excuse-democrats-treason-2018-2 "just joking"].
** Given that Trump [[No Sense of Humor|shows no evidence he even possesses a sense of humor]], it's amazing how many jokes he told from the Presidential podium that nobody noticed until his staff pointed them out. Trump would also occasionally subvert his staff's efforts by contradicting them and insisting he really was serious.
* [[Just Plane Wrong]]: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htyNQ8MK3xU Famously claimed] that the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II F-35 Fighter Jet] was ''literally'' invisible. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6mZ1ofj2Vo Also famously claimed] the Continental army seized control of the airports during the American Revolution.
* [[Karma Houdini]]:
** Despite [[w:First impeachment of Donald Trump|being impeached in 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress]], the Senate refused to bring him to trial.
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** Many other examples could be given here, but ''The Washington Post'' tracks his claims regularly (such as [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/04/17-issues-that-donald-trump-knows-better-than-anyone-else-according-to-donald-trump/?utm_term=.023786155911 the pre-election era circa 2016]) and specifically in [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/27/president-trumps-full-washington-post-interview-transcript-annotated/?utm_term=.ee0b33f542cf this November 27, 2018 interview] wherein Trump epitomised this trope:
{{quote|'''Trump''': One of the problems that a lot of people like myself — ''we have very high levels of intelligence'', but we’re not necessarily such believers [in climate change].}}
:* The same can be said of his cabinet picks. Rick Perry (former Governor of Texas and Trump's first Secretary of Energy) didn't even ''know'' nuclear energy was part of the package when he said he wanted to “do away with” the department at a 2011 presidential debate. Steven Mnuchin, his first Secretary of the Treasury, is a known spendthrift who has been criticized for making frivolous purchases. Callista Gingrich (his Ambassador to the Vatican) seemed to have no qualifications other than being Catholic, and was likely appointed as a favor to Trump's ally Newt Gingrich. And Scott Pruitt (his EPA chief) had been best known for unsuccessfully suing the EPA ''twelve times''. Oh, and the state he represents, Oklahoma, is among the most polluted in the nation. [https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/least-qualified-people-serving-in-the-trump-administration.html/ More examples can be found here.]
:* Post Presidency it has gotten worse with his endorsements, who are mostly extremist celebrities with no experience in politics, for no reason other then gratitude for ''them'' endorsing ''him''. These include [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mehmet_Oz Dr. Mehmet Oz] in Pennsylvania, [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/J._D._Vance J.D. Vance] in Ohio, and [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Herschel_Walker Hershel Walker] in Georgia.
* [[Lack of Empathy]]: Is apparently completely incapable of understanding or sympathizing with the feelings of anyone other than himself, as noted by many outside observers and reporters.
* [[Landslide Election]]: Subverted in 2016, inverted in 2020. He claimed his victory in 2016 was "the biggest Electoral Landslide in history, but it was not even close<ref>The biggest electoral landslide in history was, not counting George Washington or James Monroe, who both ran unopposed, John F. Kennedy's victory over Alf Landon, 523 votes to 8. Trump's victory in 2016 is not even in the top 10.</ref> and he lost the Popular vote. While he and many proponents predicted [https://www.valuewalk.com/2020/10/trump-biden-electoral-vote-prediction-stunning-victory/ a 312-Electoral Vote landslide in 2020], he lost 306 to 232. Ironically, Biden's victory was a wider margin that Trump's in 2016, which Trump himself claimed was a landslide.
* [[Large and In Charge]]: 6'3" and 243 pounds as of the end of 2020, with a body mass index over 30, which qualifies him as "obese", although not morbidly so as some have claimed.
* [[Last-Name Basis]]: Due to using his family name as a brand name and the meaning of the word "trump", Donald Trump is referred to as Trump the majority of the time (or occasionally President Trump).
== M-O ==
* [[Machiavelli Was Wrong]]: His methods have been called "Machiavellian" by his detractors, and given his record, the Trope seems legit.
* [[Madness Mantra]]: White House insiders reported that after the 2020 election was called for Joe Biden, a disbelieving Trump would wander the White House muttering, "I won. I won. I won."
* [[Medal of Dishonor]]:
** Trump is such a [[Bad Liar]], ''The Washington Post'' was inspired by his statements to create a new category on their fact-check system, the Bottomless Pinocchio, which is for absurd lies that are repeated multiple times. As of September 2022, Trump has 56 Bottomless Pinocchios, the worst being his claim that his economy was the best in United States history, repeated 493 times. This is also, by the way, the Post's record number of times for a Bottomless Pinocchio.
** Also, statements either originating or propagated by Trump have been given the Lie of the Year designation by Politifact six times.<ref>[https://www.politifact.com/article/2014/dec/15/2014-lie-year-exaggerations-about-ebola/ Exaggerations over the spread of Ebola], [https://www.politifact.com/article/2015/dec/21/2015-lie-year-donald-trump-campaign-misstatements/ his campaign misstatements], his [https://www.politifact.com/article/2016/dec/13/2016-lie-year-fake-news/ "fake news" accusations], claiming [https://www.politifact.com/article/2017/dec/12/2017-lie-year-russian-election-interference-made-s/ Russian election interference is a 'made-up story',] his claim that [https://www.politifact.com/article/2019/dec/16/lie-of-the-year-donald-trump-whistleblower-wrong/ a whistleblower got Ukraine call 'almost completely wrong'], and his [https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/dec/16/lie-year-coronavirus-downplay-and-denial/ downplay and/or denial of the Corona virus.]</ref>
* [[Metaphorgotten]]: See some of the entries under "[[Troll]]" below.
* [[A Million Is a Statistic]]: Repeatedly declared during mid-2020 that "nobody important" was affected by COVID-19. By the end of his administration nearly 400,000 Americans had died from the disease.
* [[The Mole]]: During Trump's 2016 campaign for the Presidency, his previous history as a supporter of the Democratic party as well as a friend of the Clintons had no few news outlets, including [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35066940 the BBC], wondering if he wasn't actually a Democratic mole within the Republican party.
* [[Move Along, Nothing to See Here]]: Trump makes all his wives, ''alleged'' mistresses and staffers [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/everyone-signed-one-trump-is-aggressive-in-his-use-of-nondisclosure-agreements-even-in-government/2018/08/13/9d0315ba-9f15-11e8-93e3-24d1703d2a7a_story.html?utm_term=.c19fa7eece1e sign Non-Disclosure Agreements].
** As of March 30, 2021, [https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/30/trump-campaign-non-disclosure-agreement-478648 a federal judge has ruled that the Non-Disclosure Agreements Trump had his campaign workers sign were so broad as to be unenforceable]. So in this particular case the trope appears to averted.
** As president, Trump and his staff routinely destroyed records of meetings and phone calls in violation of federal law mandating their preservation. A small group of White House staffers who went out of their way to reconstruct destroyed paper records early in his administration were fired for doing so.
* [[Mundane Made Awesome]]: Frequently referred to his never-built US/Mexico border wall as [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM7mPl20GhQ a big, ''beautiful'' wall].
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** He famously declared in front of video cameras that [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2020/mar/13/donald-trump-coronavirus-joe-biden-bernie-sanders-live-updates-news?page=with:block-5e6bfb108f088d75755931fa he took "no responsibility" for failures of his administration to address the COVID-19 outbreak.]
** In the wake of the January 6, 2021 mob attack on the Capitol, [https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/12/politics/donald-trump-riot-impeachment/index.html Trump repeatedly refused to take any responsibility] for the violence and deaths inflicted by the crowd he had whipped into a frenzy, and in fact claimed unnamed and unidentified "people" had examined "every word" of his speech and certified it harmless.
** During the 2022 midterm elections, Trump declared that while any wins for the Republicans were entirely due to him, any losses weren't his fault.
* [[Never Accepted in His Hometown]]: Trump joins [[James K. Polk]] as the only Presidential candidate to lose both his home state and state of residence while still winning the election. Unlike Polk these are the same state (New York).
* [[New Media Are Evil]]: Whether he believes this or not is debatable, but he clearly wants everyone to think so. His war with the press is well-known, having coined the term "fake news" (a moniker he places on any media company who expresses any negativity towards him) and claiming the press is the "enemy of the people".
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* [[Parody Retcon]]: [https://theweek.com/articles/836330/what-all-president-trumps-jokes-have-common Most of Trump's jokes]. From the [[Black Comedy Rape|"locker room talk"]] on the [[wikipedia:Donald Trump Access Hollywood tape|Access Hollywood tape]] to the chant of "Twelve more years!", anything that goes over poorly is often passed off as comedy. See also ''"Just Joking" Justification'', above.
* [[Persona Non Grata]]: After protesters stormed the Capitol immediately after attending his rally on January 6, 2021, social media outlets, online merchant sites, large banks, the PGA, and other private companies quickly and publicly started having nothing to do with him.
** Many towns - even in states he won in both elections - have refused to host his rallies and events since the 2020 election, and for good reason - as of July 2021, he still has over $840,000 in unpaid bills from past rallies and events.
** [[Chris Wallace]] also claims Trump and many other individuals involved in the January 6th 2021 Capitol riots are no longer allowed to appear on ''[[Fox News|Fox News Sunday]]''.
* [[Pervert Dad]]: Trump has a [https://www.indy100.com/news/donald-trump-ivanka-inappropriate-daughter-9594016 documented history] of discussing the sexual appeal of his daughter Ivanka, including his own attraction to her, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/donald-trump-ivanka-trump-creepiest-most-unsettling-comments-a-roundup-a7353876.html going back at least to 1997] if not further. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCzhcaGrUG8 And he hasn't been shy about proclaiming any of it in public and on the record.]
* [[Pet the Dog]]: Despite usually having an aggressive manner towards opponents, he has been known to show compassion to them.
**In 2018, [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44390737 Trump granted clemency to Alice Johnson], a 63-year-old woman who had been serving time for a drug charge and money laundering since 1996 and had been denied clemency by previous administrations despite meeting all the criteria.
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** Even mainstream media outlets conceded his sympathy for Bernie seemed genuine after Bernie was replaced by Hilary as the Democratic candidate of 2016.
** There's also [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knlJWu815C0&ab_channel=C-SPAN his response to the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg].
*** [[Zig-Zagging Trope|Zig-Zagged]] in that he immediately proceeded to ignore [https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/18/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-wished-that-i-will-not-be-replaced-until-a-new-president-is-installed-report-says.html her dying wish].
* [[Pinocchio]]: The ''Washington Post'' created a new category of "falsehood" (as part of their Fact Checker) for false claims repeated more than 20 times publicly after attributing so many to Trump. It was called the "
* [[Plato Is a Moron]]: Even before he was elected President in 2016, Trump was especially prone to making such pronouncements about himself, claiming once that he was [https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a15957887/is-trump-a-better-president-than-abraham-lincoln/ an even better President than Lincoln]. And afterward he would never hesitate to inform anyone who would listen that he was smarter and better informed than any expert who dared disagree with him.
* [[Playing Both Sides]]: According to [https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-war/#comments_section_start a tweet made by Washington Post investigative reporter Josh Dawsey], he "mused to donors that we should take our F-22 planes, 'put the Chinese flag on them and bomb the shit out' out of Russia. 'And then we say, China did it, we didn't do, China did it, and then they start fighting with each other and we sit back and watch.'" Needless to say, [[Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard|didn't go ever well.]]
** Not to mention, [[Easy Logistics| it would never work]]. If such a plan were enacted, planes entering Russian airspace unannounced would be shot down before anyone even noticed flags or markings, and they'd quickly be identified as American planes via the design. Oh, and the F-22 is is a tactical fighter, not a bomber.
* [[Playing the Victim Card]]: Complaining about how he was the victim of any number of people, organizations and conspiracies out to get him was Trump's oratorical stock-in-trade while he was President, and played a major part in his baseless contention that his defeat in the 2020 presidential election was due to massive fraud.
** In 2015, after he made unsupported statements about illegal Mexican immigrants, [[wikipedia:Miss_USA_2015#Controversy|Univision Communications decided to not air the Miss USA pageant (which Trump owned at the time) in Mexico]]. Trump proceeded to sue Univision for defamation.
* [[Pointy-Haired Boss]]: He was clearly ''not'' a good employer. Quite a few stories claim that even before his Presidency he refused to pay contractors or laborers what they were owed, and as of July 2021, he still owes $850,000 total to various cities for unpaid bills acquired during his campaigns. ''As'' President, Trump's cabinet had the worst turnover rate in history, with [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here| seven appointees quitting in the first six months alone]]. He had four Press Secretaries, four Chiefs of Staff, four Security Advisors, ''six'' Deputy Security Advisors (functioning without one after the last one quit), and two Attorney Generals. Anthony Scaramucci famously lasted only eleven days as Communications director before resigning.
* [[Presenters]]: For ''[[The Apprentice (TV series)|The Apprentice]]''.
* [[Propaganda Machine]]: The now-defunct @realDonaldTrump [[Twitter]] feed and the ecosystem of right-wing and far-right news outlets that fed off it.
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* [[Public Relations Ad]]: He's a master of advertisement. It works, obviously… and tricky enough that it's hard to tell where it ends.
<!-- ** Even the First Lady Melania Trump's [https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/first-lady-melania-trump photo]. MOD: The link is now 404, and there are multiple versions of the page with no single consistent photo in the Wayback Machine. -->
* [[Refuge in Audacity]]: To the point that it becomes a deliberate use of the [[
* [[The Remnant]]: Even before the inauguration of President Biden, Trump was planning and raising money for a 2024 presidential bid, with millions of loyal followers expected to support him. While the fallout from the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol may have damaged this plan, it hasn't crippled it, and as of late January 2021 he was reported to be considering founding a new political party entirely.
** A year and a half later no such party had been formed, and Trump's fund-raising campaigns had come under investigation for fraud.
* [[The Rival]]: In the Republican Party, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been seen as his biggest rival for a potential third run in 2024. Seeing as losing Florida almost always means losing the primary election for the GOP, Trump's attacks on DeSantis are almost as nasty as the ones made towards Democrats.
== S-U ==
* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]]: Pretty much the mantra defining most of Trump's adult life.
* [[Screw the Rules, I Have Connections]]: Subverted. He may have ''thought'' his Supreme Court appointees would side with him, but three unanimous rulings refusing to hear his voter fraud claims and another refusal to hear Texas' challenge to state voting laws show otherwise. Two of his appointees also ruled against the third challenge to the Affordable Care Act, the 7-2 ruling even having one less dissenter than the second time.
** Similarly almost every time he or his legal team appeared to have been relying on a lower-level Trump appointee to automatically rule in their favor regardless of the law, they have been disappointed.
* [[Screw the Rules, I Make Them]]: Trump as President was described as "norm-breaking" and as willfully ignoring the limits, both written and unwritten, to a President's power and behavior.
** According to his White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, this was a constant in Trump's White House. "He would roll his eyes at the rules, so we did, too," Grisham is quoted as saying in [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/12/trump-15-boxes/ a February 2022 interview] with ''The Washington Post''. "We weren't going to get in trouble because he's the president of the United States." She also described an occasion where she expressed concern about violations of the [[w:Hatch Act|Hatch Act]], only for Trump to respond, "Who’s the boss of the Hatch Act? It’s me. So say whatever you want."
* [[Self-Deprecation]]: Trump can laugh at himself, like at his roast and originally at the White House Correspondent's Dinner before [[It's Personal|the jokes against him got more scathing]]. [[Frontline]] even claimed it was Obama's jokes about Trump that caused Trump to run for president seriously.
** Inverted when he became President and skipped both White House Correspondence Dinners (2017 and 2018). Comedians [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDmSZX_zVuQ Hasan Minhaj] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeEiq_C6j3c Michelle Wolf]'s roasts were particularly brutal affairs. After the backlash following Wolf's roast it was announced that a presidential biographer (Ron Chernow) would give a talk in 2019 that [https://www.vulture.com/2018/11/2019-white-house-correspondents-no-comedian.html prohibited comedians from attending Presidential dinners].
* [[Self-Made Man]]: In the sense that he [[Half Truth|inherited his business]], went broke (bankrupting a ''casino'' is, as many have noted, no mean feat), and then rebuilt himself. He did receive a "small loan of million dollars", the [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/opinion/donald-trump-tax-fraud-fred.html highest estimates putting it at $413 million], but Trump has succeeded at multiplying his wealth to several times the amount he was loaned as his current{{when}} net worth is around 2 billion dollars (and [https://www.investopedia.com/updates/donald-trump-net-worth/ going from a millionaire to a ''billionaire''] is no mean feat).
* [[Shame If Something Happened]]: How some commentators [https://twitter.com/sams1stdaughter/status/1187796927125032960 characterized] [https://web.archive.org/web/20191022032729/https://3ci6gd82qqe3lh3ugujrds6j-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/18918566_web1_191010-BIR-trump140-HEROS57.jpg his efforts] [https://www.noozhawk.com/article/daryl_cagle_ukraine_extortion_and_donald_trump_20190925 to bully other countries] [https://web.archive.org/web/20191022032124/https://3ci6gd82qqe3lh3ugujrds6j-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/18918566_web1_191010-BIR-trump140-HEROS45.jpg into doing things for him].
* [[Shut UP, Hannibal]]: Received one from Joe Biden in the first 2020 Presidential debate.
* [[Silent Majority]]: Has often pushed this claim to insist he and his policies are more popular than he is, although in most cases, his base seems more like [[Vocal Minority|a ''very'' loud minority.]]
* [[Springtime for Hitler]]: Many of his detractors say he ran for President as a PR stunt and never expected to win. If so, it certainly didn't help his PR.
* [[Sore Loser]]: A consistent theme throughout his life and his presidency -- Trump ''cannot'' bear to be seen as losing at ''anything'', and has used lawsuits and lies to challenge anything that makes him look like a "loser". He's insisted every election he's been in has been "rigged" (including the 2016, where he won) so as to give any loss the appearance of illegitimacy, no more so than in the wake of losing to Biden in November 2020. Trump ''immediately'' declared that there had been a massive conspiracy of organized voter fraud to deny him his rightful re-election. He and his enablers then spent ''months'' after the 2020 election filing dozens of ultimately futile lawsuits in order to overturn its results. In December 2020 he was reported to be considering declaring martial law to prevent his removal from power. In early January 2021 he attempted to bully his own vice president into illegally declaring him the winner, and when that failed he incited a mob to storm the Capitol Building in an unsuccessful attempt to ''seize'' the government. He never formally conceded, and all the way up to Biden's Inauguration refused to mention him by name.
** In mid-December 2020, infamous GOP strategist/dirty trickster Karl Rove noted that Trump was [[Understatement|"on the edge" of looking like a Sore Loser]].
* [[Spanner in the Works]]:
** To a degree at least; few in the mainstream media and among the Beltway circles seriously expected him to win, which caught them by surprise.
** The news regarding the [https://archive.today/20161111043354/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/11/10/the-trans-pacific-partnership-is-dead-schumer-tells-labor-leaders/
* [[Spell My Name with a "The"]]: Nicknamed "The Donald", after his first wife Ivana Trump referred to him as such in an interview.
* [[Spoiled Brat]]: So characterized by both sides of the aisle in the aftermath of the 2020 elections. "We're watching a petulant child not getting his way throw a tantrum," a senior Republican was [https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/23/politics/donald-trump-pardons-stimulus/index.html quoted as saying by CNN] in late December 2020, in regards to Trump's refusal to let the election result go unchallenged.
* [[Start My Own]]: After being banned from pretty much every major social media outlet in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 insurrection attempt, Trump tried several times with mixed success to start his own social media platform.
* [[Still the Leader]]: Subsequent to his 2020 defeat.
* [[Streisand Effect]]: Trump's reaction to ''[[w:Fire and Fury|Fire and Fury]]'', a derogatory tell-all written by [[w:Michael Wolff (journalist)|Michael Wolff]], could well serve as a critic's lesson on how ''not'' to dissuade someone from reading a book. After passages of the book were leaked, Trump launched an explosive rant on Twitter condemning the book, while his wife, daughter, and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders condemned it publicly. Trump even sent a cease and desist letter to the publisher threatening a lawsuit if it was released, even as pre-sales on Amazon were reaching record numbers. As a result, the publisher actually released it four days early to meet demands, and it shot to the heights of the bestseller lists in a matter of hours. Many major booksellers reported lines outside their stores not seen since they had new ''[[Harry Potter]]'' releases, selling out stock in two minutes.
** Then he did it again two years later, threatening to sue his own niece for writing (not publishing, simply writing) ''[[w:Too Much and Never Enough|Too Much and Never Enough]]''. The threatened lawsuit resulted in the book gaining not just national media coverage but also media coverage in Canada, including an in-depth interview with the author on ''[[As It Happens]]''. As a result of this publicity, the book was released twenty-eight days early and set a record at the book's publisher for the number of preorders received.
** Trump also made a similar rant after [[w:The Lincoln Project|The Lincoln Project]] (a Republican organization opposing President Trump and committed to preventing his reelection) aired their first campaign ad. Few had even heard of the Lincoln Project, a small organization on a meager budget, until then, but such attention changed that quickly, gaining them recognition nation-wide and leading to more and more advertisements.
* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]: On September 2nd of 2020, he tweeted, "It never ends! Now they are trying to say that your favorite President, me, went to Walter Reed Medical Center, having suffered a series of mini-strokes. Never happened to THIS candidate - FAKE NEWS. Perhaps they are referring to another candidate from another Party!" Problem is, nobody had, up to that point, claimed he might have been treated for strokes.
* [[Take Our Word for It]]: Claimed the Mueller Report "completely exonerated" him despite refusing to allow it to be made public. Very much downplayed, as none of his detractors were willing to take his word for it.
* [[The Teetotaler]]: Donald Trump [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/us/politics/for-donald-trump-lessons-from-a-brothers-suffering.html abstains from alcohol] and has also said he has never smoked tobacco or cannabis.
* [[Terrified of Germs]]: Has been said to avoid pressing buttons and shaking hands.
** When President he would go out of his way to avoid touching people or even going into crowds. Some believed it was at least part of the reason he refused to address the COVID-19 pandemic for months.
* [[Third-Person Person]]: Reported as speaking that way on occasion, such as the meeting with Bill Barr cited under ''It's All About Me'', above.
* [[Throw It In]]: One of the greatest frustrations suffered by Trump's staff during his presidency was his inability to follow a script. Without someone able to force him to stay on-topic, Trump would invariably throw out his prepared notes to expound, often fact-free and at great length, about his political enemies, his grievances and anything else he thought would make make him look good to the audience.<ref>In a lot of ways, this was due to his disdain towards President Obama, whose detractors often claimed [[Insane Troll Logic|he could not give a speech without a tele-prompter]] something which most would agree, is preferable to trying to recite a ninety-minute speech from memory.</ref> Averted in the wake of the mob attack on the Capitol he instigated on January 6, 2021; his staff refused to let him make any kind of live speech, instead taping all his announcements and watching closely to ensure that he did not improvise and undo the carefully scripted condemnations of the insurrectionist violence that they had worked so hard to produce and distribute. Even so, the recording they used was the fourth "take".
* [[Too Soon]]: Defied; he waited all of 24 hours after [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Powell Colin Powel's] death to [https://www.rawstory.com/there-really-is-no-bottom-trump-buried-for-spiteful-statement-about-colin-powell-s/ criticize and insult him.]
* [[Trash Talk]]: A favored tactic -- some would say his ''only'' tactic -- in any kind of debate or presentation; Trump never dealt in facts or reasoned argument when he could insult his opponent, their family, or even an idea.
* [[Troll]]: As demonstrated during his presidential campaign, he would purposely lure the media into writing hit pieces on him by spewing inflammatory rhetoric so they would give him publicity they otherwise would have denied him. His best troll, even acknowledged by CNN, was when he promised to speak about his views on [[Barack Obama]]'s national origin, duped the media into airing nearly half an hour of positive press about him, then made a brief comment Obama was born in America just as they were losing patience and abruptly left.
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**# It reminds by association that the American politician most remembered for being actually caught on infidelity is [[Bill Clinton]]. A shadow is cast not just on him, but more importantly, on everyone conniving at his shenanigans or being lenient. And not merely by association, but by allowing them to loudly demonstrate hypocrisy. Any return fire hits his main opponent and her supporters.
**# An obvious response would be (and indeed was) to wave the flag of feminism some more. It's also a very slippery and double-edged response, associated not only with affirmative action and Political Correctness, but also the wake of a press corruption scandal ([[Gamergate]]). Also, promoting feminism practically means enabling more ''radical'' feminism. And in a wave of radical ''anything'' not only the loud ones shall drown out the quiet ones, but the worst attention seekers shall compete for the most outlandish stunt. This just as inevitably led to the obviously deranged ones being paraded before public, as more contemptuous memes were born or rejuvenated. The "Trigglypuff" and pussyhats immediately come to mind. There was no way this won't backfire. Lack of caution only managed to make the whole part "how about Bill's girls?" much worse.
* [[Undying Loyalty]]: What Trump demands of his staff and appointees, requiring [[Lickspittle]] levels of obsequious agreement with him.
* [[Unperson]]:
== V-Z ==
* [[Volleying Insults]]:
** The 2016 Republican party debates generally devolved into this.
** The first 2020 presidential debate ended up like this, for the most part (with constant interruptions, not helped by the inability of the moderator, Chris Wallace, to maintain a semblance of order). In the ''second'' debate, a system had to be installed that let the moderator cut the microphone if one of them tried to speak out of turn.
* [[Weasel Words]]: In the strict sense of using ambiguous phrases, claims or appeals to vague and unverifiable sources. e.g. "[https://www.yahoo.com/news/many-people-saying-trump-tweet-000000450.html a lot of people are saying/many people have said]". He claims "[http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/382378-trump-many-people-have-said-i-should-fire-muellermany people have told him]" he should fire Robert Mueller. His speech patterns are characteristically ''weaselly'' in the rhetorical sense of invoking ''an unsubstantiated mass of people who miraculously agree with your opinion''.
** He has also inverted this by [https://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/28/trump-fake-news-media-238894 accusing the media of making up sources].
* [[What Have You Done for Me Lately?]]:
** His explicit intent in seating Supreme Court justices was to guarantee they would rule in his favor regardless of the merits of the case. It didn't work out that way. After multiple legal losses in the aftermath of the 2020 election, he angrily tweeted more than once how the Republican party and all the judges he'd appointed ''owed'' him, and weren't working hard enough to overturn Biden's election for him.
{{quote|"One of the metrics by which he’s often judged any number of things is: 'Who's out there saying good things about me or fighting on my behalf?' And he never seemed to think there were enough people doing it strongly enough."
|[https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-isolated-impeachment/2021/01/13/0595675a-55b6-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html "Trump is isolated and angry at aides for failing to defend him as he is impeached again"], ''The Washington Post'', January 13, 2021}}
:* On a related note, Trump managed to escape prosecution during his Presidency mostly due to the machinations of House Speaker (at the time) Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader (again, at the time) Mitch McConnell, and his second Attorney General Bill Barr. Despite this, in the aftermath of the Capitol riot, he condemned and insulted ''any'' member of the Republican Party, including those three, who refused to acknowledge his fantasy of a "rigged election", going so far as to label Barr a "RINO"<ref>"Republican in Name Only", previously used as an insult towards members of the GOP who show willingness to accept Liberal ideas, [[You Keep Using That Word|now frequently used]] by Trump and his base to describe a Republican who dares disagree with him even once.</ref> because of it.
* [[Wild Card Excuse]]:
**"
**"
**"
* [[Witch Hunt]]: His constant refrain regarding ''any'' investigation aimed at him.
** Trump famously declared the investigation into his campaign to be a "[
** As Congress prepared to impeach him a second time for riling up an angry mob and aiming them at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, Trump insisted that he'd done nothing wrong and the last-minute impeachment was yet another "witch hunt".
* [[With Us or Against Us|With Me or Against Me]]: Either you were [[Undying Loyalty|100% loyal]] to Trump, or you were an enemy to be crushed. Republicans who criticized him were blasted as "RINO"s (Republicans in Name Only), and when long-time boosters FOX News actually reported something that did not reflect well on him, he attacked them instantly.
** He had no compunctions about savaging his vice president, Mike Pence (who had been loyal to him to a [[Lickspittle]] degree for four years), when Pence refused to break the law to overrule the electoral college and declare Trump the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
* [[The Wonka]]: Trump has made some major accomplishments in politics partially due to his idiosyncratic approach to politics and his personal traits, despite this confusing many around him and making some question the quality of his character or his state of mind.
* [[Word Salad]]: Trump has been [https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/02/22/trumps-word-salads-conceal-his-ignorance/known to do this on occasion], which [https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/01/behold-donald-trumps-latest-word-salad-on-climate-change/ can reveal his ignorance of the subject at hand].
* [[Worst Whatever Ever]]: During the first presidential debate (September 26, 2016), Trump [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fEb5niN8Kg said] on [[w:North American Free Trade Agreement|NAFTA]]: "This has been the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals, maybe ever." The quote later turned into a [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-worst-trade-deal meme].
** In the final weeks of his presidency, Trump was hailed as the worst president ever by commentators from all points on the political spectrum. Even fellow Republican politician and actor [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] wasted no time to call Trump [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAWvl-g_6rg the worst] as well as a racist following the Capitol raid in January 2021. Arnie even drew parallels to the infamous ''Kristallnacht'' putsch where he compared the pro-Trump Proud Boys extremist group to the Nazis, something which hit too close to home for the Austrian (it should be noted that Arnold's father Gustav was a former Nazi Party member; Arnold attributed his father's abusive behaviour to the guilt he had over what Gustav and other Nazis and collaborators had perpetrated or enabled during the war.)
** C-Span, however, is slightly nicer to him, their [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ngsZuhZMM0 2021 Presidential Historians Survey] rating him second-to-last, beating [[William Henry Harrison]]. Even then, the reason [[Damned By Faint Praise|Harrison is usually considered the worst]] is because he died after only 30 days in office and thus had no accomplishments to speak of (thus he is omitted from many surveys).
* [[Wrong Genre Savvy]]: A common criticism of Trump is that he believes the President of the United States has absolute power and that laws do not apply to him. If nothing else, he has praised world leaders who are regarded as dictators, including Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin, and even Saddam Hussein. He also seems to believe that appointing a judge makes that judge obligated to rule in his favor, which the Supreme Court and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (usually regarded as staunchly conservative) have repeatedly shown him otherwise.
* [[Other Stock Phrases|"You Can't Fire Me, I Quit!"]]: Trump [https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2021/02/04/donald-trump-resigns-sag-read-his-resignation-letter-union-response/4392136001/ resigned from the Screen Actors Guild] in early February 2021 after learning he was about to be expelled from the union for his actions on January 6, 2021.
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