It should be no surprise that President Donald Trump, the man who came to office with a promise to “Make America Great Again,” is already thinking about his tagline for the next election. Sure, maybe he should be focused on the interim four years, but at least that first term won’t be bogged down with brainstorming sessions because he’s got a plan in 2020 to “Keep America Great.”
He revealed as much when speaking with The Washington Post:
Halfway through his interview with The Washington Post, Trump shared a bit of news: He already has decided on his slogan for a reelection bid in 2020.
“Are you ready?” he said. “ ‘Keep America Great,’ exclamation point.”
“Get me my lawyer!” the president-elect shouted.
Two minutes later, one arrived.
“Will you trademark and register, if you would, if you like it — I think I like it, right? Do this: ‘Keep America Great,’ with an exclamation point. With and without an exclamation. ‘Keep America Great,’ ” Trump said.
“Got it,” the lawyer replied.
It’s amazing how quintessentially Trump the slogan and the above exchange are. But the lawyer might run into an obstacle when he scurries out the door to trademark those three words.
Because they were the slogan of the near-future dystopian film The Purge: Election Year.
This can’t be a coincidence, can it? And the new president doesn’t seem like so avid a film buff that he would have caught this on the campaign trail. So is this an instance of life horrifically imitating “art?”
Not quite. It’s more a case of a marketing team knowing Trump better than Trump knows himself. The tagline for the film, which came out this summer, was a knock on Trump himself. Of course, at that time, few expected things to turn out the way they did, so not only did the allusion prove more apropos than many would ever hope, but it turned out to be his exact re-election (God help us) slogan.
The Purge is a film franchise that imagines a nation in which one night of crime is legalized so that the country can maintain order for the other 364 days in a year.
Let’s hope that the film’s tongue-in-cheek depiction of a “great America” doesn’t reflect what we’re in for over the next four years:
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Maybe we can take some solace in the fact that Trump very clearly articulated HIS slogan ends with an exclamation point, whereas the one from the film does not.
Because, as we all know, Donald Trump doesn’t mean something unless he puts an exclamation point on it.
