What Are Those Strange Noises Trump Makes?

In the run-up to last week’s midterm tsunami, I became perplexed by the way President Trump was talking. And because he is the same person now as he was then — and perhaps even “samer,” as he might say — I remain perplexed.

The issue is not that Trump often seems barely able to rub a noun and a verb together. I’ve generally felt that his barstool speaking style is partly a function of America’s increasingly informal approach to oratory, and partly because Trump realizes that his cult of personality eliminates the need to eloquently project authority.

And as I wrote recently, his increasing use of profanity is due to the fact that novelty wears off and you have to always set the flame higher. Oreos now come not only in a Double Stuf variety — what a Dionysian blast that was for a kid when they were introduced in the 1970s — but now an even more padded Mega-Stuf. Mega-Stuf Trumpianese, including his recent forays into seemingly homoerotic asides, gets the audience going.

I’ve watched many Trump speeches over the years. But in his recent rallies, I saw something new.

Last month in South Carolina, Trump referred to the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley as “the governor EEHHP.” It was a bizarre belch-like noise, something uncontrolled. Was Trump going for a dis of Haley? If so, it was an oddly clumsy one for a master of the stand-up put-down. “Governor EEHHP”?

The next day, discussing the Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed, Trump said, “If you don’t want communists controlling the U.S. Senate which is between JAYYT … how about the gentleman from a place called Michigan?” The “JAYYT” has no meaning, and why “a place called Michigan,” as if Trump were referring to Brigadoon? Did it help him save face for a verbal glitch?

So: “EEHHP,” “JAYYT” — and then “jigger.” That one was in Mississippi, and it was Trump referring to gas prices in Iowa being $1.85 “on the top of the jigger.” What’s a jigger? (A measuring tool for bartenders, sure — but what does that have to do with gas?)

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