President Donald Trump has responded to the heated quotes from Steve Bannon published in the controversial book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House , as reported by the Inquisitr , by using the word “misnomer” in the wrong way when speaking to the press. As seen in the below CNN video, President Trump was asked a barrage of questions by journalists, which Trump attempted to answer and simultaneously thank the media. One question featured news about Bannon calling Trump a “great man” – a label that Trump said meant Bannon changed “his tune” about quickly.
“He called me a great man last night. He obviously changed his tune pretty quick…. I don’t talk to him. I don’t talk to him. That’s just a misnomer.”
With Trump’s lawyers reportedly sending Bannon a cease-and-desist letter about his quotes featured in the heated book, with Bannon quipping that “ they’re going to crack Don Jr. like an egg on national TV, ” according to the Hill , Trump was just as quick to hit back against Bannon. However, in doing so, Trump used “misnomer” incorrectly.
The word “misnomer” doesn’t mean a misstatement or a factual inaccuracy, which is the way Trump appeared to use the word “misnomer” in that context. Misnomer is defined as “a wrong or inaccurate name or designation.” Almost like an anti-moniker, “misnomer” became Trump’s misnomer for the actual word.
Trump on Bannon: “He called me a great man last night. He obviously changed his tune pretty quick. … I don’t talk to him. I don’t talk to him. That’s just a misnomer” pic.twitter.com/4IHk7FZPBa
— David Mack (@davidmackau) January 4, 2018
Trump appeared to want to express in the video that it was an incorrect statement to assume that he spoke with Bannon often, or that Bannon was a close confidant – that label would be a “misnomer” indeed, in Trump’s assertions. However, if Trump was indeed responding to the statement that he still speaks with Bannon and called that assertion a “misnomer,” the usage of the word in that respect was incorrect.
Therefore, Trump’s label for the word “misnomer” was itself a misnomer.
Trump wouldn’t be the first person in Trump’s clan to use words incorrectly. Ivanka took plenty of heat for using “otherwise” incorrectly and for claiming that she didn’t know what the word “complicit” meant. Meanwhile, Twitter is filling up with tweets about Trump using the word “misnomer” in the wrong manner.