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“Prime the pump” is a common economic expression that’s been around since at least the 1800s, but according to Donald Trump, he came up with it “a couple of days ago.” Yeah, and he also has a girlfriend… that he met during summer camp… who lives in Canada, so you’ll never meet her. But she’s real!
In an interview with the Economist, the president was asked about his “tremendous” tax plan increasing the deficit, unlike Ronald Reagan’s. “Well, it actually did,” he responded. “But, but it’s called priming the pump. You know, if you don’t do that, you’re never going to bring your taxes down.” Trump went on to explain the deficit won’t increase for long, then asked the Economist editors if they know what “prime the pump” means. Of course they do — but for everyone else, it means, “Government investment expenditures designed to induce a self-sustaining expansion of economic activity” — which must have surprised Trump, considering he just came up with it.
Economist: Yes.
Trump: We have to prime the pump.Economist: It’s very Keynesian.
Trump: We’re the highest-taxed nation in the world. Have you heard that expression before, for this particular type of an event?Economist: Priming the pump?
Trump: Yeah, have you heard it?Economist:: Yes.
Trump: 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. It’s what you have to do.Economist: It’s…
Trump: Yeah, what you have to do is you have to put something in before you can get something out.
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What does a man have to posses in order to claim inventing a phrase like “prime the pump?” If you thought balls, you’re fucking wrong. It’s abject stupidity.
People possess in posses like all the time.
I coined the word “YOLO”
you’re welcome
There’s a special place in hell for whoever actually coined the word “YOLO”
Very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Queens with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old Czech prostitute named Ivana with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would never drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the phrase ‘prime the pump’. Some times he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical, summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we’d make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a golden bag and beaten with reeds, pretty standard really. At the age of 12 I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum, it’s breathtaking, I suggest you try it.
I enjoyed picturing Eric Trump using this quote.
Dear Lord, so many of these things actually had to happen during Eric Trump’s childhood. Definitely the part about having his testicles ritually shaven.
the john hodgman tweet is fantastic.
Christ what a blithering moron.
Correction: he has a mistress, who lives in Canada.
Dollars to doughnuts, Trump had no idea what “Keynesian” means, got reflexively defensive and tried to make the reporter feel as dumb as he felt. You have projection to put the onus on the reporter and then immediate boasting about something easily disprovable just to pump his own ego back up.
You could hear that happening even in the transcript text.
It’s strange to me that the President of the United States somehow has a worse vocabulary and speech patterns than me and my friends in our groupchat.
A bigly mistake.