President-elect Trump loved his 2016 campaign slogan so much that he plans to incorporate it into the catchphrase for his re-election bid in 2020.
“Are you ready?” Trump asked the Washington Post in an interview published Wednesday, building suspense for the unveiling of his new slogan. “‘Keep America Great,’ exclamation point.”
Trump called a lawyer into his office during the interview and instructed him to trademark the phrase more than three years ahead of his re-election bid, projecting confidence that America would indeed be great again by the time he invoked the saying.
The president-elect said he drew inspiration from his iconic campaign catchphrase, “Make America Great Again,” which he saw reflected in policies from his jobs plan to his push for a stronger military.
Trump said he filed a trademark for “Make America Great Again” within a week of Mitt Romney’s loss to President Obama in the 2012 election. He paid a $325 fee to lock down the phrase.
“I felt that jobs were hurting,” Trump said. “I looked at the many types of illness our country had, and whether it’s at the border, whether it’s security, whether it’s law and order or lack of law and order. Then, of course, you get to trade, and I said to myself, ‘What would be good?’ I was sitting at my desk, where I am right now, and I said, ‘Make America Great Again.'”
That slogan, emblazoned on hats and t-shirts around the country, became a rallying cry for his supporters and a point of contention for his detractors as the campaign wore on.
Trump said he now sees one of the most important components of his job as president as “being a great cheerleader for the country.”
Part of that cheerleading will include putting the military on “display” as his administration builds it up, Trump said.
“That military may come marching down Pennsylvania Avenue,” he said. “That military may be flying over New York City and Washington, D.C., for parades. I mean, we’re going to be showing our military.”
