The 'new word' Trump just invented is 400-years-old
President Donald Trump speaks as he welcomes the Florida Gators, the 2025 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Champions, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 21, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
President Donald Trump seemingly coined a new word for the Trump vocabulary at his May 19 signing of an executive order giving prescription drug manufacturers 30 days to lower the cost of their medications.
“Basically, what we’re doing is equalizing,” Trump announced according to People Magazine. “There’s a new word that I came up with, which is probably the best word. … We’re gonna equalize, where we’re all gonna pay the same. We’re gonna pay what Europe’s gonna pay.”
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary records the first known use of the word “equalize” in 1599, and it is in common circulation today. People reports Trump even used the word to much media attention in March during his address to a joint session of Congress. In that speech, Trump inaccurately claimed the U.S. had invested more money in the liberation of Ukraine from invading Russian forces.
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“Biden has authorized more money in this fight than Europe has spent by billions and billions of dollars. It's hard to believe that they wouldn't have stopped it and said at some point, come on, let's equalize. You got to be equal to us. But that didn't happen,” Trump said.
CNN factchecked that claim, reporting the U.S. spent less than Europe in the liberation effort, according to the Kiel Institute, which tracks Ukraine aid.
Trump’s pharmaceutical company related executive order is not a solid law reducing drug prices by itself but a request for companies to voluntarily lower prices. If they fail, Trump said he will task the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to devise new regulations that could lower prices to match those pharmaceutical companies charge international.
People magazine compared Trump’s “equalize” revelation to his comparable fascination with the word "groceries” that he displayed the day he announced worldwide tariffs last month, claiming the additional U.S. cargo taxes would lower U.S. prices at supermarkets.
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“It’s such an old-fashioned term but a beautiful term: groceries," he said, according to People. "It sort of says a bag with different things in it."
Read the full People Magazine report at this link.
