President Donald Trump on Wednesday managed to combine two of his most confusing grievances into one strange aside.
First, he complained that “affordability” is a “fake word.” Then, in almost the same breath, he declared that “most people” don’t know that the word “dumb” has a “b” in it.
Speaking at an event in Pennsylvania, Trump said he was confronted with the word “affordability” on his second day in office:
“That’s a fake word that they use. They caused the affordability problem. It’s called high prices. They came up with this word. They’re good at coming up with words, but we came up with a good word, too. They’re Dumocrats. Dumb. You take the ‘b’ out ― most people don’t know that dumb has a ‘b,’ OK? But the ‘u’ replaces the ‘e’ and you have a Dumocrat.”
Far from being new, the word “affordability” dates back to 1910, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, which notes that use of the word has increased sharply since the 1950s-60s.
And if the word has come up often, it’s because Trump himself vowed to reduce prices from his first day in office.
Instead, they’ve continued to steadily climb ― especially after he launched a war with Iran in February, which caused oil prices to spike and led to a domino effect on other prices.
While the latest inflation report finally delivered some good news for the president, it comes as new strikes on Iran have caused oil prices to jump, which could trigger another increase in inflation.
His “Dumocrat” insult is one he’s been repeating with more frequency, and nearly every time he’s announced that “most people don’t know” that the word “dumb” has a “b” in it.
Most people do, in fact, know how to spell the word “dumb.”
Trump’s rambling aside brought out his critics on X: