April 5, 2019

Donald Trump Did Not Coin the Phrase “Make America Great Again”

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Imitation may be the greatest form of flattery, but President Donald Trump isn’t in the habit of paying respects to his forebears.

No one is debating the “magnificence” of the president’s catchphrase. We’re just saying he didn’t coin it. Ronald Reagan used the phrase “let’s make America great again” in his 1980 presidential campaign. “But he didn’t trademark it,” the Washington Post quotes Trump as saying. A regular businessman, Trump trademarked the phrase in 2012. “I think I’m somebody that understands marketing,” he said.

So, no, “Make America Great Again” was not “made up by” Trump. The only thing that was made up by him was the notion that he invented the phrase.

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We've never been very good at being conservative.

And usually, that serves us well in doing the ambitious, hard-hitting journalism that you turn to Mother Jones for. But it also means we can't afford to come up short when it comes to scratching together the funds it takes to keep our team firing on all cylinders, and the truth is, we finished our budgeting cycle on June 30 about $100,000 short of our online goal.

This is no time to come up short. It's time to fight like hell, as our namesake would tell us to do, for a democracy where minority rule cannot impose an extreme agenda, where facts matter, and where accountability has a chance at the polls and in the press. If you value our reporting and you can right now, please help us dig out of the $100,000 hole we're starting our new budgeting cycle in with an always-needed and always-appreciated donation today.

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