Amusings: Trumpet Blowing

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen dealing with congenital liars it is important to remember that, sooner or later, they will begin to mix up reality and fantasy. Fortunately for the world, Trump reached that point several decades ago and now lives in an alternative reality in which what he said last need not necessarily agree with what he says now, or indeed have any relevance. But unfortunately for the world, humankind and its leaders have not yet fully grasped the fact that there is no reality in Trump’s world, not even for a fleeting second. His truth and reality evolve constantly.

Trump’s reality is based solely on his own laughably predictable excellence. He is his own true and constant trumpet blower.

The term ‘to blow one’s own trumpet’ as used in its present form was used by the 19th century author Anthony Trollope, in his work ‘Australia and New Zealand’ of 1873 in which he observed, “In the colonies . . . when a gentleman sounds his own trumpet he ‘blows.’” One is tempted to believe that by ‘blows’ Trollope meant that the gentleman ‘passes wind’ or as we more delicately say today ‘farts!’ But, in fact, one would be wrong for ‘blows’ seems to match its current US use as a slang term to describe anything bad or worthless. I prefer Trump farting.

Of course My Reader (there must at least be one of you) is straining at the leash to point out that The King James Version of the Bible of 1611 includes a warning against boastfully ‘blowing one’s own trumpet’, although not in those precise words: “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.”

One is almost tempted to believe that Trump is familiar with this passage for he verily does not let his left hand know what his right hand is doing.

The verb trump which has been in use since the 16th century means to “fabricate, deceive, cheat” and derives from the Middle English trumpen from the Old French tromper, “to deceive” or more interestingly “to blow a trumpet” and alludes to quacks and mountebanks, who attracted the public by blowing a horn, and then cheated them into buying. The Hindley Old French dictionary has baillier la trompe “blow the trumpet” as “act the fool”. And verily yet again does Trump live up to his name.

One source connects trump to trombe which means “waterspout” and is eerily prescient of a president and Russian prostitutes cavorting in Golden Showers!