Donald Trump thinks he invented common three-word phrase but historians disagree

Donald Trump has previously claimed to have coined a well-known phrase, however, historians aren't so sure.

Since his return to office, the POTUS has been quick to take responsibility for certain achievements, such as the return of NASA astronauts, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, and the boom in stocks and bitcoin prices rising The Altantic says.

And he's also taken credit for the cost of egg prices declining, CNN reports, adding: "When I took it over, eggs were through the roof, and now eggs are down."

In March, he declared himself the 'fertilisation president' after having previously described himself as being the 'father of IVF', despite having also admitting to have had a female senator 'explain' the concept of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) to him.

However, Trump seemingly isn't a stranger to claiming credit for things, as one incident back in 2017 saw the politician claimed to have coined a pretty well-known turn of phrase.

In conversation with The Economist in 2017 - just weeks into his first term in the White House position - the 78-year-old President asked a journalist if they'd ever 'heard of' the saying 'prime the pump'.

After the editor of the financial news outlet confirmed that 'yes', he had, Trump pushed harder insisting he'd 'came up with it' recently.

The conversation arose when the father-of-five was pressed about his previous tax reform plans, with the journalist comparing his to that of 40th President, Ronald Reagan, which didn't increase the deficit in the way that Trump's would. "Well, it actually did," Trump bit back.

"But, but it’s called priming the pump. You know, if you don’t do that, you’re never going to bring your taxes down."

Trump was mocked for claiming the turn of phrase (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Insisting taxation plan wouldn't increase said deficit 'for long', he continued: "You may have two years where you’ll…you understand the expression 'prime the pump'?"

"We have to prime the pump," he continued. "We’re the highest-taxed nation in the world. Have you heard that expression before, for this particular type of an event?"

"Priming the pump?" the reporter clarified, to which Trump went on: "Yeah, have you heard it? 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. It’s what you have to do."

It turns out, however, that students of economics have been using the three-word phrase since as early as the 1930s.

"The phrase 'priming the pump' dates to the early 19th century," dictionary leads Merriam Webster responded to the President's claim days later, sharing info on the term on X (formerly Twitter).

"'Pump priming' has been used to refer to government investment expenditures since at least 1933."

According to the BBC, the phrase is often associated with influential British economist John Maynard Keynes, who first voiced the suggestion that public spending would, eventually, boost a weak economy.

The term is often attributed to John Maynard Keynes (Bettmann / Contributor)

The BBC further reports that The Oxford English Dictionary has an even earlier quote from a 1916 version of Everybody's Mag, which says: "When the waters of business are stagnant, gentlemen, it becomes necessary, if I may say so, to prime the pump."

'Prime the pump' was also a term tossed around whilst Herbert Hoover resided in the Oval Office, after the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

According to Associated Press's Fact Check, Hoover had said in a 1935 speech: "One of the ideas in these spendings is to prime the economic pump.

"We might abandon this idea also, for it dries up the well of enterprise."