WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Donald Trump tells it, never-before-seen things are happening with stunning regularity.
The United States is going to build a new missile defense system “the likes of which nobody’s ever seen before.”
His aggressive use of the military in Washington has reduced crime to “numbers that we haven’t seen here ever.”
And when it comes to economic growth under his leadership, “we’ve never seen anything like it.”
It’s the president’s favorite form of hyperbole, whether he’s talking about something he likes or dislikes.
Nothing is ever getting little bit better or a little bit worse — it’s always so good or so bad that it’s never before been recorded in the annals of human history.
The phrase, which Trump is using with increasing frequency, is not just a rhetorical signature. It’s also a reflection of how Trump views the world and approaches the presidency. Almost everything is black and white, with himself as the hero and his political opponents as the villains. His successes are legendary in his eyes, and the country’s problems are urgent crises that require him to consolidate power and take drastic action.
“The way he talks translates into the way he governs,” said Brian Ott, a communication professor at Missouri State University who focuses on political rhetoric. “For extreme responses, everything demands an extreme context.”
Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson, said “repetition is the key to any good messaging and President Trump is the greatest communicator in the history of American politics.”
Trump’s grandiosity is growing along with his power
It’s not hyperbole to say that Trump is deploying his trademark phrase at levels never been seen in his political career. And he’s doing it at a time when he’s less restrained — by Congress, the Supreme Court, members of his own administration and his own hesitancy — than in his first term.
Trump has used some version of the phrase 194 times this year, according to Roll Call Factba.se, a database of presidential remarks. (And that’s not counting Thursday, when Trump said “there’s never been anything like” the technological advancements during his term, or Friday, when he boasted about economic investments by saying “nobody’s ever seen numbers like this.”)
The total falls short of Trump’s use of the phrase during his last two campaigns, when grandiose statements were typical of his political rallies, but it far outpaces any previous year that he was in office.
Only 90 examples were recorded in 2019, 77 in 2018 and 48 in 2017.
Factba.se used artificial intelligence and other methods to identify versions of the phrase in recordings of Trump’s public comments. Bill Frischling, who oversees the database, said Trump’s phrasing appears to be something of a verbal tic, since it rarely shows up in social media posts over the years.
Nor is the phrase included in the text of prepared speeches since Trump took office in January. (The White House has released nearly two dozen this term.)
Trump’s hyperbole isn’t always backed up with facts
Trump’s loose relationship with facts is well documented, all the way back to his bestselling book “The Art of the Deal” in 1987.
“People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular,” the book said. “I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration — and it’s a very effective form of promotion.”
Tony Schwartz, Trump’s ghost writer, has said that he coined the phrase “truthful hyperbole,” but the future president loved it.
The routine was on full display last year when Trump spoke at the Republican National Convention.
He promised to “lead America to new heights of greatness like the world has never seen before,” and he said the national debt will come down “with numbers that nobody has ever seen.”
Then he unleashed his anger at Democrats.
Rising inflation? “They’ve never seen anything like it.” Illegal immigration? “Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”
(Inflation has been higher before, particularly in the 1970s and early 1980s, but border crossings were setting records under President Joe Biden.)
Now the phrase is a fixture of Trump’s events, including his recent meeting with the new Polish president. Sometimes his claims are accurate, other times not.
Regarding the war between Russia and Ukraine, Trump said “they’re losing soldiers at levels that nobody has seen since the Second World War.” (Indeed, it’s Europe’s deadliest conflict in that time period.)
He said “they have crime that’s at levels that nobody’s ever seen before in Baltimore,” a pretext for a potential deployment of the National Guard over local objections. (The city has historically struggled with crime but violence has been declining in recent years.)
And Trump said his tax legislation would help the middle class and it’s the “first time they’ve ever seen anything like this.” (Wealthy people will get the largest benefits, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.)
The phrase is spreading through the administration
Trump’s top advisers ape his language, as several did during last week’s three-hour-long Cabinet meeting.
Steve Witkoff, a diplomatic envoy, told the president that people around the globe “have never really seen the world change in this way” because of his peace negotiations.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised Trump’s work on controlling migration, saying they’re “getting cooperation from countries that we’ve never seen before.”
Sometimes Trump even likes to put the phrase in other people’s mouths.
In an Aug. 15 interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been impressed with his leadership.
“Vladimir said just a little while ago, he said, ‘I’ve never seen anybody do so much so fast,’” Trump said.