The Illustrious Malapropisms Tweeted by President Trump

3/9/2017

Let's learn the importance of education through the presidential examples of malapropism. Trump uses "unpresidented" in the place of "unprecedented"; "hear by" in lieu of "hereby." What other "presidential" examples of malapropism do you know?

24 Comments

Monica Orduna

3/11/2017 14:13:16

Although I am very bad in English sometimes and is not my native language as it should be to President Trump, I still get notorious malapropisms in his tweets. Two of them were when he said something about the followers of senator Bernie Sanders, he writes "Looks to me like the Bernie people will fight. If not, there blood, sweat and tears was a waist of time. Kaine stands for opposite!", in this sentence, he instead of "their" writes "there" and "waist" instead of "waste".

Kay

3/20/2017 18:33:54

If you allow me to add one more to your list, "blood, sweat, and tears" should be followed by "were" not by "was."

We--you, I, and anybody else--make mistakes and we should learn to laugh a good-hearted laugh at each other's mistakes. However, I think the middle-school grammar and spelling mistakes of the current occupant of the White House also reveal the poor content of his writing and ethos. Once again, we have to consider how the frequent usage of malapropisms reveals the arrogance, ignorance, and narcissism of the speaker.

R Volk link

9/9/2018 12:06:55

When you have deliberate refusal to remove your own ignorance, that's stupidity. He should know better, and theoretically does or at least could, but doesn't care. Stupidity.

Jackeline Ahtziri Martinez

3/28/2017 20:43:45

I think because we are learning the language we are more focused on details to not make the same mistakes :)

Adaylin Alvarez

4/8/2017 01:06:42

It is sad knowing that Donald Trump actually has a Princeton education. Seeing his way of handling himself and his English, we know that his smarts didn't get him there, but his money did. It is ironic that he is criticizing other people when he doesn't even know how to clearly state an argument or make a statement without grammar mishaps. They want to end the funding of public schools, but we can clearly see that not even a private education can make you smart.

R Volk link

9/9/2018 12:10:48

You will certainly NEVER see or hear Princeton admitting, let along boasting of, Drumpf's attendance. If his daddy handed them money to build a building with the name on it, I am sure it's been rededicated to a higher purpose, such as the study of street sweeping.

Joe Cool

5/10/2021 13:48:18

Not Princeton -- the Ivy League school was Penn (He claims The Wharton School, but that wasn't a thing yet); the other uni was Fordham in NY before that.

Luis Villanueva 1-2A

3/11/2017 20:00:28

Jeb Bushs Foreign Policy speech had a bunch of malapropism that to this day he still receives a lot of negative comments from the press.He referred to Ukraine as "the Ukraine" as if they were a territory instead of an independent nation. Bush also called an ISIS caliph that guy instead of by his actual name. He also said he forced himself to go to Asia several years which implies he felt forced/ obligated. Lastly he confused Iran and Iraq two different countries and underestimated the ISIS members.

Kay

3/20/2017 18:36:51

Oh no! Did he really make that many verbal blunders in one speech?

Adaylin Alvarez

4/8/2017 01:13:55

Trump supporters are very ignorant and hypocritical because they ignore Donald Trump's mistakes but they can't seem to forgive someone who makes the same mistakes as him. Hillary lied, but so does Donald and sometimes his lies are much worse. If Hillary had secretly talked to Putin, I'm pretty sure most of Trump's supporters would have gone ballistic and would have been blinded with rage.

Pedro Polanco

3/14/2017 00:17:51

Donald Trump expresses his messages in very different way from former presidents such as Barack Obama, a very formal speaking person. President Trump has used malapropism in several of his speeches over the past few months, using the word "bigly" multiple times instead of using more formal, educated words. Either way I know it is improper for a person of his status to use this kind of grammar repeatedly but I also believe he still manages to make his points clear, for the most part that is.

Luis Villanueva 1-2A

3/19/2017 20:29:56

I agree with you Donald Trumps way of speaking is very informal and I believe that is why he has used malapropism a lot. When Donald Trump talks to the people in the U.S or anyone in particular its like as if hes having a normal conversation. Other presidents have as well used malapropism like President Reagan an example is in a speech in 1975. Reagan said "The United States has much to offer the third world war."

Roxanne Flores

4/3/2017 21:44:29

I have the same opinion about this too. On how many people might connect with trump because they may be just as uneducated as he is. It is not surprising on how many supporters he has. This just makes me wonder on how many people use malapropism in their diction just as he does.

Edoardo Munoz

4/5/2017 22:54:43

A wide array of peoples connections to Trump actually has little to nothing to do with their education. An abundance of the conservative community once supported him (key word = once) because his ideas and mannerisms were unique to both the Republican and Democratic party. His tax plan was theoretically better than what we have right now, and his overall economic standpoint was unique enough to draw in election "haters." Malapropism is also a skill utilized to get your point across, usually within public speaking or debates. Chances are that someone saying "This economy is bad, its very bad. I'm great with money, I'm rich, I know what I'm doing and have the experience; and this experience truly does tell me that this economy is badly serving the people of this country. This will badly affect us in the future" will get the point across a lot better than someone saying "Our current economic status lacks the efficiency to provide for our nation in the manner in which it was meant to." Yeah, one may sound better than the other; but in the world of politics getting your point across is what earns you voters and that's what really makes the difference. If only big words and fancy sentences were what got you into office, people like Ronald Reagan would have never come into office; and any English professor would have a great chance of receiving a spot in office.

Jorge Gonzalez

3/19/2017 14:29:27

I don't think this counts as malapropism but I would like to point out before he was president Trump said 7/11 instead of 9/11 during his speech.

Well, George Bush experienced malapropism in his speeches. An example would be "This is Preservation Month. I appreciate preservation. It's what you do when you run for president. You gotta preserve" (Bush). In here he was supposed to use the word persevere for the Perseverance month but instead he used preserve.

Kay

3/20/2017 18:41:59

Your comment makes me almost nostalgic about Bushism.

Andrea Gaytan

3/20/2017 08:52:09

The president George W. Bush has had a few examples of malopropisms. Some have been "they have miscalculated me as a leader," "we need an energy bill that encourages consumption" and "we cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile." A lot of people mis-speak sometimes and create their own malapropism examples without even noticing.

Kay

3/20/2017 18:52:25

In fact, many words were invented through backward formation. For example, "surveillance" gave us the verb "surveil." Even though "survey" may be a correct verb form," "surveil" seems to better approximate the verb "wiretapp [sic] or spy on."

Jackeline A Martinez

3/27/2017 21:14:34

Not because Mr. Trump has all the power of the nation means he has the same amount of knowledge. I know that I am not the one to say that because my first language is Spanish but I try my best to be great.

Roxanne Flores

4/3/2017 20:59:03

I think a lot of people expect this from Trump. His use of malapropism is frightening in a way because he is our new president. One would expect for a president to be intelligent with their use of words due to how many speeches they give. But trump seems to defy this. He is a business man with a business mindset.

Adaylin Alvarez

4/6/2017 02:59:11

Not only does Donald Trump commit malapropisms, but so does his Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos does too. Devon wrote, "Honored to witness the historical inauguration and swearing-in ceremony for the 45th President of the United States." The word historical is used in the wrong context, it should be historic. Historical means concerning history and historical events, and historic means to be important in history. The Trump administration at its finest.

chris bautista

4/6/2017 23:04:46

I believe that Donald is not really educated because of all the in educated and informal word so that's the reason why he commits malapropisms every time he makes a speech. I my opinion that is one of the factors to why most of the time some people can really understand the point of his speeches. I don't think that a person of his status should be talking that type of way.

Adaylin Alvarez

4/7/2017 21:00:59

I just saw an interview that Ivanka Trump did with CBS on being called complicit. She obviously knows what the word unprecedented means, but she acts oblivious and she was using many circumlocutions in her speech in order to avoid the true meaning of what being complicit is. She gave a whole speech about not being complicit and wanting to do good, but she avoided the fact that she is seen as complicit because she doesn't criticize her father for the things that he says. Its very upsetting knowing that she is a very smart woman who wastes her intelligence by staying quiet and being complicit.

Katherine

5/2/2019 14:24:49

Trump did NOT go to Princeton. He went to Fordham University and to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, but as an undergraduate - did not earn an MBA.

﻿The Illustrious Malapropisms Tweeted by President Trump