Karoline Leavitt recently falsely claimed that Donald Trump came up with the motto 'Peace through strength,' adding to the growing list of phrases the president bizarrely claims he's come up with

09:51 ET, 25 Jun 2025Updated 10:48 ET, 25 Jun 2025

Trump has claimed several times that he came up with words that have been around for centuries (Image: ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

Donald Trump and his team keep claiming that the president has come up with phrases and words that already exist, some for centuries.

“Nobody knows what it means to accomplish peace through strength better than President Trump,” Karoline Leavitt said this week. “He is the one who came up with that motto and that foreign policy doctrine, and he successfully implemented it in his first term," she claimed.

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The idea that Trump, who has been given a terrifying nickname by Iran, came up with the phrase "peace through strength" is quite simply bizarre.

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Around a year ago, Robert O’Brien, who served as Donald Trump’s White House national security adviser from 2019 to 2021 actually wrote about the history of that exact phrase for Foreign Affairs magazine. It comes as new dementia fears were raised about Donald Trump after viewers spotted a mysterious clue in his suit.

READ MORE: Trump's 'hollow stunt exposed his fragile ego' and the pattern is 'deeply worrying'READ MORE: Donald Trump branded 'dumbest President ever' after stunning six-word geography blunderLeavitt falsely claimed that Trump came up with the motto 'peace through strength'

“Si vis pacem, para bellum is a Latin phrase that emerged in the fourth century that means ‘If you want peace, prepare for war,’” O’Brien explained.

“The concept’s origin dates back even further, to the second-century Roman emperor Hadrian, to whom is attributed the axiom, ‘Peace through strength — or, failing that, peace through threat.’”

While Leavitt appeared to be unaware of this, the phrase has also been used by officials in the US and around the world for generations.

However, it's far from the first time Trump or members of his team have made similar false claims about the president's apparent ability to come up with insightful phrases and words.

Last month, Trump defended his administration's controversial trade policies by arguing: “Basically, what we’re doing is equalizing." Then, he bizarrely added: "That’s a new word that I came up with."

Trump previously claimed he came up with the world 'equalizing'(Image: AP)

But according to Merriam-Webster, the first known use of the word "equalizing" was all the way back in 1599. While discussing immigration last year, Trump also said: “The caravan. I made up that name, too.” But he didn't, the first-known use of "caravan" as a noun was in 1588 while its first-known use as a verb was in 1885.

One of Trump's most outlandish linguistic claims came during his fist term when he sat down for an interview with journalists from The Economist.

Explaining why he was cutting taxes despite a growing budget deficit, Trump said: “We have to prime the pump.” The president added: “Have you heard that expression before, for this particular type of an event?”

Despite the editor confirming that he was familiar with the metaphor, Trump continued: “Have you heard that expression used before? Because I haven’t heard it. I mean, I just ... I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good.”

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The common phrase had been used long before Trump was even born.