Trump’s Coronavirus Press Briefings: Over/Under Data on His Favorite Words and Phrases
By Sascha Paruk
Updated:
- President Trump is giving daily press briefings on the state of COVID-19 in America
- When discussing the Coronavirus Task Force, he repeats certain words and phrases ad nauseum
- The page below tracks how frequently Trump uses his favorite terms
President Donald Trump has been giving daily press briefings from the White House on COVID-19 and the steps the Coronavirus Task Force is taking to combat the pandemic.
As early as March 26, our political analysts noticed that certain words and phrases were coming up a lot in each briefing. With a little extra time on our hands, we decided to figure out just how frequently Trump was repeating his go-tos.
The table below has a running tally of Trump’s most-repeated words and phrases from the coronavirus briefings.
Trump Briefings: Total Mentions of Words/Phrases
| WORD/PHRASE | Total | Apr. 23 | Apr. 22 | Apr. 21 | Apr. 20 | Apr. 19 | Apr. 18 | Apr. 17 | Apr. 16 | Apr. 15 | Apr. 14 | Apr. 13 | Apr. 9 | Apr. 8 | Apr. 7 | Apr. 6 | Apr. 5 | Apr. 4 | Apr. 3 | Apr. 2 | Apr. 1 | Mar. 31 | Mar. 30 | Mar. 29 | Mar. 27 | Mar. 26 | Mar. 25 | Mar. 24 | Mar. 23 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great | 983 | 29 | 52 | 15 | 39 | 52 | 31 | 34 | 33 | 28 | 43 | 44 | 12 | 19 | 42 | 50 | 37 | 46 | 29 | 25 | 42 | 35 | 33 | 45 | 44 | 36 | 19 | 21 | 48 |
| Ventilator | 456 | 13 | 22 | 10 | 32 | 31 | 27 | 9 | 14 | 12 | 39 | 38 | 4 | 8 | 13 | 10 | 17 | 29 | 12 | 15 | 10 | 34 | 9 | 12 | 29 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| Big/Bigger/Biggest | 436 | 8 | 18 | 14 | 11 | 21 | 19 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 19 | 7 | 8 | 22 | 24 | 17 | 18 | 20 | 18 | 36 | 13 | 8 | 15 | 14 | 10 | 18 | 10 | 27 |
| Incredible | 346 | 15 | 20 | 4 | 12 | 10 | 13 | 13 | 18 | 10 | 12 | 19 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 27 | 9 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 15 | 15 | 20 | 26 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 17 |
| Tremendous | 240 | 7 | 15 | 6 | 12 | 7 | 12 | 17 | 4 | 6 | 13 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 18 | 1 | 6 | 15 | 2 | 12 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 13 | 6 | 5 | 15 |
| Fantastic | 133 | 3 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 17 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 15 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 4 |
| Best | 107 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 4 |
| Amazing | 54 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| Fake News/Fake Sources | 50 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Never Seen Anything Like That | 49 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Hidden/Invisible Enemy | 43 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2.2 Million Deaths | 43 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Working Very Hard | 41 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Inherited a Broken System/Country | 34 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
A couple online sportsbooks have actually posted over/under prop bets on how often certain words will be uttered by the President during these briefings. When those lines are next posted, bettors can potentially use this data to gain an edge.
It’s pretty obvious that Trump’s tendency to repeat words and phrases increases when he goes off script. When he’s reading a prepared statement, the repetition is minimal. But once he starts taking questions and doesn’t have a canned response, he reverts back to his usual verbal crutches.
In light of that, whether he goes over or under on words like “tremendous” on any given day will depend, largely, on how long he takes questions.
Any politicos looking for additional Trump-related betting content may be interested in the following odds trackers:
Managing Editor
Sascha has been working in the sports-betting industry since 2014, and quickly paired his strong writing skills with a burgeoning knowledge of probability and statistics. He holds an undergraduate degree in linguistics and a Juris Doctor from the University of British Columbia.
