Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said many less-than-kind things about his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, but this may be the first time he’s used Yiddish to do so.
Speaking to 6,000 supporters at a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Trump said of Hillary’s defeat by Obama in 2008, “She was favored to win and she got schlonged, she lost.”
“Schlong” is a Yiddish word for penis. Yiddish, an amalgam of German and Hebrew, was the language traditionally spoken by Jews from eastern Europe. It is still spoken today among some religious Jewish sects.
Many words from Yiddish have made their way into the English vocabulary, including “klutz”, “schlep”, “putz”, “chutzpah”, “kitsch”, “kvetch”, “nosh”, “schmooze” and “schmuck”.
Trump, whose daughter converted to Judaism, has been known to use Yiddish words and expressions before. In November, he said of a competitor, “Jeb Bush, let’s say he’s president – Oy, yoy, yoy.”
“Oy” comes from the Yiddish exclamation meaning “Oh!”, and generally expresses dismay, anxiety, or woe.
The business mogul and Republican front-runner has also used the term “schlonged” before, saying in a 2011 interview with the Washington Post, “I watched a popular Republican woman [Jane Corwin] not only lose but get schlonged by a Democrat [Kathy Hochul] nobody ever heard of for the congressional seat and that was because, simply, because of the Paul Ryan plan.”
Trump continued to rail on Clinton during the Grand Rapids rally, joking that when she didn’t return on time to Saturday’s Democratic debate after a commercial break, “I thought she quit, I thought she gave up.”
Clinton had been delayed while waiting to use a restroom. Trump later said, “I know where she went. It’s disgusting, I don’t want to talk about it.”
He also said that Clinton was “crooked”, and “not a president”.
Clinton drew Trump’s ire when she said during the Democratic debate that Trump had become ISIS’s “best recruiter” by making anti-Islam comments like his notorious suggestion to refuse all Muslims entry into the US.
Clinton said, “They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.”
Trump responded to Clinton’s accusations by calling her a liar. The billionaire, who defended his stance on Muslim immigration even after a huge media backlash, is well-known for expressing his views without regard to political correctness. In fact, he rejects the very concept, tweeting after the Michigan rally, “We will make history together, and end political correctness in order to secure our homeland!”
THANK YOU Grand Rapids, Michigan! Time to end political correctness & secure our homeland! https://t.co/cyRCfwxJg3 pic.twitter.com/PPrriLTFgA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2015
