So Donald Trump is being hailed in some quarters as “presidential” for his address to Congress last night. And fair enough. Though there didn’t seem to be much substance to it, his tone was noticeably more measured than any of his public appearances to date. Not that that was particularly hard mind you. When you think about it though, describing his as presidential seems like something of a back-handed compliment, and at best damning him with faint praise. The word presidential means like or related to a president, so isn’t that the least that would be expected of him? Surely he should be presidential by default? But I understand people being pleasantly surprised. Regardless of whether you agree with his policies or not, it’s hard to deny that he’s had a very direct, blunt style, in contrast to his predecessors.
Reading about him made me think about his surname, and wonder if anyone in his campaign considered playing up the associations of the word trump with victory. You can have a trump card, or trump someone by beating them. And the word is very closely related to the word triumph, of course.
But perhaps someone in his entourage did think of the association, but then considered the other, slightly older meaning of the word: to fabricate or deceive. It’s not used in that sense so much anymore, except in the phrase trumped-up charges (how many newspaper sub-editors dream of getting a chance to use that as a pun?) And perhaps they did a little more research, and realised that for many English people, trump is a slang word with a meaning you really don’t want to be associated with.
He does like to emblazon his name on things though, or at least he did before becoming president, and I suspect that the craving for recognition that suggests overrides any consideration of what his name might mean. I think he wants to have his name associated with success so much that he never really cared about any pre-existing connotations to the name. Regardless of what his name was, I suspect he’d desperately want you to associate it with success. At least he’s lucky in that Trump Tower has a nice ring to it. What about President Trump? Time will tell, but let’s just say I don’t see it being remembered with fondness.
English-Language Thoughts 
I really like the phrase “Trumped Up” and the alternate slang meaning makes me just laugh; you know full of hot air. Thank you Niall for another interesting post and a possible thought for one of my little posts. ~~dru~~
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My pleasure! I get the feeling that he’s completely unaware that Trump can mean fart, and there are a bunch of his staffers who spend all day making sure he doesn’t come across it used that way.
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The did a Saturday Night Live skit on just that topic and I didn’t know that slang meaning either but I’m incorporating into my vocabulary as of today!
~~dru~~
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“To fabricate or deceive” is pretty spot on. That slang meaning suits him best, though, i think. ( I doubt he’ll ever be in danger of discovering that particular meaning; to do so would require not being an insular jerk. He probably doesn’t even know where England is on a map.)
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I think he probably believes that the word is solely used as the surname of his family. Going by the size of his vocabulary, it wouldn’t surprise me if he’d never encountered in any other form.
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The size of his vocabulary can be likened to that of his hands. Maybe there’s a connection 😉 ….*checks own hands*
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My English mother always referred to a bowel movement as a “trump”. Seems appropriate. I love how people are congratulating him because he didn’t sound insanely drunk like he normally does. Sad!
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It seriously comes across as people praising a normally troublesome child for behaving during an important event.
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I recently “discovered” the 19th-century writer Wilkie Collins, author of The Woman in White and The Moonstone (highly recommended and free on Kindle!). He’s fond of the word “trumpery”, which online dictionaries tell me means “worthless nonsense” or “something without use or value”.
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It sounds great as a noun like that, and quite relevant. I’m going to try to bring “trumpery” back!
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