--- title: Donald Trump Says He Invented 'Priming the Pump' Phrase description: Merriam-Webster called out President Donald Trump on his claim that he came up with the expression "priming the pump" in a recent interview canonical: https://time.com/4775731/merriam-webster-donald-trump-priming-the-pump/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-11T15:38:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:32.239Z og:title: Merriam-Webster Is Trolling Donald Trump Over 'Priming the Pump' Remark og:description: Dictionary tells Trump: No you didn't come up with the phrase og:url: https://time.com/4775731/merriam-webster-donald-trump-priming-the-pump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Merriam-Webster Is Trolling Donald Trump Over 'Priming the Pump' Remark twitter:description: Dictionary tells Trump: No you didn't come up with the phrase twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Merriam-Webster to Trump: No You Didn't Invent This 1933 Phrase > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=afc18d26-ea65-4f26-96f2-5dfe38f34200&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump [Watch (HLS stream): TIME 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Q0tBuF3M.m3u8) (4:12)  _Published 2016-12-07. The 2016 Person of the Year is Donald Trump, the President of the divided states of America._ by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman May 11, 2017 3:38 PM UTC by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman May 11, 2017 3:38 PM UTC [Merriam-Webster](http://time.com/4774687/merriam-webster-dictionary-politics-donald-trump-hillary-clinton/) is continuing its tour of President Donald Trump’s word usage. Their latest effort to correct the President with facts involves the key phrase: “priming the pump.” In an interview with [_The Economist_](http://www.economist.com/Trumptranscript) published Thursday, Trump said he believed in his proposed tax cuts even if they cause short-term deficits because they would stimulate growth, an action he characterized as “priming the pump.” He went on to say he believed he created this particular phrasing. “Have you heard that expression used before? Because I haven’t heard it. I mean, I just … I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good.” Merriam-Webster, which has seized every opportunity to mock Trump and other politicians by tweeting out definitions, sprang to action with the genesis of the expression in question. According to the dictionary company, this is not a new thing Trump invented. In fact, it appears to have started 13 years before he was born, and could contribute pump-priming to the lexicon. “‘Pump priming’ has been used to refer to government investment expenditures since at least 1933,” the dictionary’s Twitter account said. > [](https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/862640442474672129) POTUS could have been joking, because he’s previously used the phrase back in [December at a speech](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-oHHblVqCA&t=1119), during a 2016 interview with [TIME](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump/) and on [Fox News in April](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI6Dh0J%5FTD4&t=389). ## Transcript MUSIC ] Every year we choose the Person of the Year who is the individual who has had the most influence on events for better or worse. The Tod argue that anyone had no influence that Donald Trump over the events of this year. [ MUSIC ] I didn't get Beyonce and Jay Z and Goose Bernstein to get crowds, I had just me. And ideas that people wanted to hear. But there is a profound argument about whether his influence was for the better or for the worse. And that really is the challenge that faces the country came through this election season more divided conspicuously publicly than at any time through any election cycle that most of us Can remember. [ MUSIC ] We're gonna have a lot of jobs put back. I think we're gonna have a lot of fuel companies leaving our country. I believed we will be successful with defeating ISIS or bringing them down to a level where it's almost the same thing. And I hope I'm judged from the time of the election as opposed to from January 20th because the stock market has had a tremendous bounce and people are seeing very good things for business in this country. [ MUSIC ] One of the things that was remarkable in going to see him, to interview him, is to be in that Penthouse which is the most austiontacious, imaginable marble and mirrors, and gold. And see him in the suit and the diamond cuff links. There is a kind of distance that repressed him about, of how is it that the billionaire is the tribune of the working man? He said, he thought that it had to do With that he wasn't a phony, that there have certainly been wealthy politicians before. Doing some cases would bend over backwards to make themselves appear like the common man, or do anything that they could, eating the corn dog at the Iowa State Fair, wearing a flannel shirt in New Hampshire. I think he had a very strong instinct that his wealth and that flamboyant display of his wealth Was not a liability that it was actually an asset. [ MUSIC ] Donal Trump is very comfortable sitting down and answering questions, although he very frequently does not remotely answer the question that you asked. In one sense it feels very undisciplined and in another sense maybe it's very disciplined in that He knows what he will and will not talk about and is unabashed in completely changing the subject. Do you feel changed by your election, and how you do think, if I play this tape back in four or eight years, the office will have changed here? Well, it's a It's a very humbling experience, I can tell you, as somebody that loves this country, it's a very large country, but it's also an even more powerful country than the numbers, because, if you look at China, and India, and you have others with more people, but, when you look at what we do in this country, it's The most incredible place on earth. [ MUSIC ] A lot of people think that Person of the Year just because the nature of the name is an honor. And certainly there have been years where we have recognized people's whose influence has been altogether, unassailably worthy. Normally, that's not the case. I know there are a lot of people who disagree with so much of what Donald Trump said and are very apprehensive about what his presidency means for them and for the country. I think I would challenge them to suggest that someone else this year had more influence than a way greater Surprise than what he did in 2016. 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