--- title: Donald Trump's Whataboutism Is His Favorite Dodge description: When faced with a tough question, President Trump has a favorite dodge: What about something else? canonical: https://time.com/4941771/donald-trump-whataboutism-rhetoric/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-14T17:26:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:26:06.161Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump's Favorite Dodge to a Tough Question: "What About...?" og:description: It's a technique called Whataboutism. og:url: https://time.com/4941771/donald-trump-whataboutism-rhetoric/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt220e620c82a17e89/6988dd45096a9464b769f88a/gettyimages-843825652.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: U.S. President Donald Trump answers reporters' questions during a joint news conference with Amir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait in the East Room of the White House September 7, 2017 in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump's Favorite Dodge to a Tough Question: "What About...?" twitter:description: It's a technique called Whataboutism. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt220e620c82a17e89/6988dd45096a9464b769f88a/gettyimages-843825652.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump's Favorite Dodge to a Tough Question: "What About...?" by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Sep 14, 2017 5:26 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump answers reporters' questions during a joint news conference with Amir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait in the East Room of the White House September 7, 2017 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump answers reporters' questions during a joint news conference with Amir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait in the East Room of the White House September 7, 2017 in Washington, DC.Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Sep 14, 2017 5:26 PM UTC When faced with a tough question, President Trump has a favorite dodge: What about something else? When pressed in August on whether Charlottesville, Virginia, should keep a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, Trump asked [what about other statues](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/whataboutism-what-about-it/2017/08/17/4d05ed36-82b4-11e7-b359-15a3617c767b%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.573b577022b0) of famous Americans. “George Washington was a slave owner,” he said. “Are we going to take down statues to George Washington? How about Thomas Jefferson?” It’s a classic rhetorical move that was particularly popular during the Soviet era, when officials would dodge difficult questions by throwing mud at the United States—at one point so common that it became the [punchline of a Russian joke](http://www.economist.com/node/10598774). Watch this video to learn more about how Trump uses the technique. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4941771/donald-trump-whataboutism-rhetoric/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4941771/donald-trump-whataboutism-rhetoric/"},"headline":"President Trump's Favorite Dodge to a Tough Question: \"What About...?\"","datePublished":"2017-09-14T17:26:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:26:06.161Z","description":"It's a technique called Whataboutism","url":"https://time.com/4941771/donald-trump-whataboutism-rhetoric/","keywords":["Donald Trump","russia","White House","Vladimir Putin"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt220e620c82a17e89/6988dd45096a9464b769f88a/gettyimages-843825652.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt220e620c82a17e89/6988dd45096a9464b769f88a/gettyimages-843825652.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. President Donald Trump answers reporters' questions during a joint news conference with Amir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait in the East Room of the White House September 7, 2017 in Washington, DC.","caption":"U.S. President Donald Trump answers reporters' questions during a joint news conference with Amir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait in the East Room of the White House September 7, 2017 in Washington, DC.","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4941771/donald-trump-whataboutism-rhetoric/","name":"President Trump's Favorite Dodge to a Tough Question: \"What About...?\""}}]}] ```