Can anyone deny that these emphatic words spoken by President Ronald Regan in his speech at the Berlin Wall were some of his most notable (among many) from his stellar two terms in the White House? And, if you thought about it, wouldn’t President Richard Nixon saying, “I am not a crook,” seem to be the words that spring to mind to sum up Nixon’s days in office? One president rises at Brandenburg Gate; the other falls from Watergate.
Before Nixon, who will ever forget President John F. Kennedy’s powerful expression, “Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country”?
Words from our presidents, whether simple phrases or entire speeches, paint a picture of the man in America’s highest office and can, rightly or wrongly, be used to label them either a good or bad leader. President Nixon, for example, accomplished much good for this country during his tenure, but the Watergate scandal, which by today’s barometer might appear tepid, marked the event that chased him from the Oval Office.
So, with Donald J. Trump’s triumphant return to the White House and with many of his words still fresh in our collective consciences, what can we pare down as possibilities for his most memorable quotes?
Trump is nothing if not a showman. Even those who don’t like him or didn’t vote for him have to admit that, because his actions demanded so much attention, he was constantly foisted, willingly and unwillingly, onto center stage, both nationally and internationally. And more so than in any of the other two times Trump ran for the presidency, this time around, merchandise related to Trump—from T-shirts to buttons to bobblehead dolls to even a shot glass complete with bullet—went flying off the internet shelves. Many of these items, of course, contained his most memorable phrases. Plus, what president is responsible for creating a worldwide dance craze?
Setting aside Trump’s iconic campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again” (which he first revealed in an interview as far back as 2013, three years before he rode down the Trump Tower escalator), and his powerful additional tagline specific to 2024, “Too Big to Rig” (a reminder of what were the obvious shenanigans back in 2020), Trump has been dropping meaningful expressions unabated, like a busted gumball machine.
Here, then, is a partial list of Trump Quotes, keeping in mind that some of my choices and their order of appearance here are based on a bit of whimsy and a dash of snarkiness:
“They’re not after me; they’re after you—I’m just in the way.”
Trump tweeted this out back on December 18, 2019. This defiant blast came along with a black-and-white photo of the president pointing his finger and indicating that people’s attention should be focused on what was really going on behind the impeachment proceedings at the time.
“Fight! Fight! Fight!”
Perhaps Elon Musk summed it up best when he talked about this moment from Trump’s life-on-the-edge-of-death experience on July 13, 2024. It was his natural, kneejerk response to a bullet that shaved off part of his ear and missed killing him by a hair’s breadth. This was pure defiance, not the desire to hide or flee.
Many who watched the moment live, either in-person or on television as did I, reacted with starkly mixed emotions: Initially, we were filled with fear that Trump had been wounded or killed; then, when he raised his fist in defiance and shouted as a leader victorious in battle, we had a relieved feeling not only for our candidate but because we suddenly thought this must surely be the moment that the race, with almost four months yet to run, was won.
“Do you want fries with that?”
Okay, maybe McDonald’s-employee Trump didn’t actually say these words as he leaned through the drive-through window at the fast-food restaurant that’s as American as mom and apple pie. However, when the jolly old grandpa who has been compared to Hitler can pull this one off, followed by sitting in the co-pilot’s seat of a garbage truck, what unknown person in the future won’t be fooled by this application to President #45 and #47? (Future me is already saying, “I’m lovin’ it!”)
“As I was saying....”
In Trump’s return to Butler, Pennsylvania, anyone with half a brain could see this one coming. He opened his speech with these words, signifying that nothing was going to stop him from getting his message out—not even the bullet that this opening remark seemed to swat away like a fly. Of course, our once and future president properly paid tribute to the brave soul, firefighter Corey Comperatore, who lost his life protecting his family during Trump’s first trip to that small western Pennsylvania town.
“Down the hall and to the left.”
Who can ever forget this one—especially around this Christmasy time of year? That’s the one line Trump had when Macauley Culkin, in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, asked Trump where to find a restroom in the Plaza Hotel. (Okay, okay, I did warn you that some of these best-quote suggestions would be a tad snarky, didn’t I?)
Finally, here is the quote that I think received the most traction because it hit the mark on so many levels:
“They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats... They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
During Trump’s one and only debate with the hapless Kamala Harris, many crazy things were said—and many of these were baseless, even previously debunked, lies from the rambling thoughts of candidate Harris. The only real issue of substance to come from the long-winded and cantankerous contest was Trump’s assertion that Haitian migrants were doing unspeakably unsavory things to people’s household pets—a claim that proved true.
Trump’s utterance could easily have been turned into mockery, but somehow memes (even a song with a catchy tune) soon appeared depicting Trump as savior of cats and dogs. Later, when bureaucrats in New York State exterminated P’Nut the squirrel and Fred the raccoon, this heartless trend of animal cruelty became the brush swiped across anyone who was part of the current ruling class. (Had the “snuffed out” squirrel been a tenant's pet in Trump Tower, and the execution enacted by a vicious doorman there, would Trump have fared so well?)
Well, that is my very short and narrowly focused collection of Trump verbiage, both as president and as a candidate. With his return to the White House for another four years, we can only anticipate additional witticisms to add to his already colorful verbal palate. (I mean, Trump has not even retaken his seat behind the Resolute Desk and he’s gifted the world already with “Canada could become the 51st state.”)
We might even speculate that what the incoming president has promised to be a Golden Age of America could be the dawn of brand-new maxims that might very well be...
“Huuuuuuuge!”
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