Trump says he invented an 84-year-old phrase. But, why?

[riversedge]

Link to tweet

Trump says he invented an 84-year-old phrase. But, why?
By Philip Bump May 11 at 8:57 AM



https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1002&stop=1


.................But we also know Trump didn’t invent the phrase because he has used it any number of times in the past.

• He said it in an interview with Fox News Channel last month: “It’ll take a period of time, and you’re going to have some deficits in the meantime, it’s, sort of, called priming the pump, you have to prime the pump, but look, the numbers just came out yesterday really, the real numbers.”

• He said it in a speech in December: “We’re going to prime the pump. We’re going to prime the pump. We got to get the jobs. We got 96 million people out there. We got to get them going, and they want to work.”
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• He said it in his interview with Time magazine when he was awarded the “Person of the Year” title: “Well, sometimes you have to prime the pump.”

So we return to the initial question: Was he joking?

In normal circumstances, it seems like the natural assumption. A written transcript necessarily strips out the manner in which words were said, and Trump does have a habit of nudgingly toying with those to whom he’s speaking. “Ya ever heard of it,” Trump might say, winking to the reporters from the Economist.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I beg to differ with Director Comey, that the position of Director of the FBI leaves that person

subject to termination on an at will basis (can be fired for any reason or no reason at all). What qualifies/limits that legal employment doctrine is that one cannot be terminated when it's on the basis of a violation of public policy.

For instance, you can be a secretary for an administrator and you're fired, just because. But you can't be fired because of your race, your national origin, your religion, and/or your sex. (Courts disagree about sexual orientation.)

In this situation, if you're the Director of the FBI, doing your job competently and you're fired because you're doing your job too well, i.e., you're going to provide the basis for possible impeachment at best (humiliation at least) for the President of the United States (and jeopardize his future business deals with Russia and/or repayment of his debt to it), then I would say that's a violation of public policy and the termination was unlawful.

[shraby]

2. I'll bet he wouldn't even know how to "prime a pump" and furthermore he probably

doesn't even know where the term comes from.

[brush]

3. What crap. Pumps are older than 84 years even.

[ProfessorGAC]

4. I Think This Meant To Suggest. . .

. . .its use in macroeconomic parlance. Certainly you're correct, that since the invention of centrifugal pumps, priming a pump was common knowledge. That goes back to before the industrial revolution.

That said, i thought i read right here at DU that the use of this term in a macroeconomic sense went back to the early 20th century, which would be older than 84 years. 84 years ago was the Roaring 20's and there would have been no need to "prime the pump" during that economy.

[brush]

5. Oh I get the sense in which he used it, but for him to think that he invented that phrase...

Puh-leeze.

I said pumps are older than 84 meaning they were being primed and people being told "you have to prime it first" long before trump came along.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. I Guess I Was More Amplifying That Sentiment

People have known what priming a pump is for a very long time. And the term has been referenced with regard to government intervention in the economy for a long time, just not as long. And we completely agree on "puh-leeze"!

[unc70]

7. Long before the invention of centrifugal pumps

The typical vacuum hand pump has been around many hundreds of years. They depend on water above the valve to maintain the seal and thus the vacuum. Most such pumps willl leak away that essential ingredient within minutes or hours, rendering the pump useless for nail that water is replaced. A container of water is usuallly kept by the pump for this purpose. It is poured into the pump, reestablishing the vacuum seal, and priming the pump. "Starter" water. To prime the pump was to get something started.

Has nothing to do with macro economics. A far more general term.

BTW we had several simple hand pumps on our farm including one on the back porch for when the water electricity went out. Once you had primed a pump, the first thing you did was refill the container.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. Your Second Paragraph

I know that! I'm saying that this term became used in macroeconomics, but quite a long time ago. Keynes himself used the term in the 30's.

So, it DOES have something to do with macroeconomics, but the term goes back to a couple centuries ago long before we were using it in any other sense.

Now "it" is using the term, macroeconomically, and thinks it's something new.

[tblue37]

6. First used as an economic term in 1933. First recorded use in uneconomic terms

was in early 19th century.

It is the term's use as an economic metaphor that is 84 years old.

[brush]

8. Maybe, but the term "priming the pump" has been around much longer than 84 years...

and for trump to think he invented it in an economic sense, like I said: What crap.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Used in 1916 as a business term; 1819 talking about personal relations

The Oxford English Dictionary's examples:

1819 Scott Let. 18 Jan. (1933) V. 295 Thus ended her attempt, notwithstanding her having primed the pump with a good dose of flattery.

1916 Everybody's Mag. 35 131 When the waters of business are stagnant, gentlemen, it becomes necessary, if I may say so, to prime the pump.

'Scott' is Sir walter Scott; Everybody's Magazine was a New York magazine published from 1899 to 1929: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everybody%27s_Magazine

[Orsino]

12. Link to context.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/05/11/trump-says-he-invented-an-84-year-old-phrase-but-why/

I wouldn't read that statement less as Trump claiming to have invented the phrase, but more as a confession that he doesn't remember it ever being used before, even by himself.

[NCTraveler]

13. He became very familiar with the phrase on one of his trips to Russia.

All the guys would yell it out loud and laugh as they told the women to chug water.