Conversely, I can imagine a MAGA parent teaching their kid that “Trumped-up charges” refer to all the baseless charges those nasty lib DAs brought against him.
I’m sure there are adults right now who think the same thing.
That’s very possible. This process is called “folk etymology”, and your example of “playing the trump card” is folk etymology-induced semantic drift.
The rest of us already do now.
I’m still hoping that eventually the trump card in a hand will be the worst card you can get. So far it just helps you win for being lucky, except I guess that sort of fits for him too. Just shouldn’t be a positive thing since he’s a well of grievances, like festivus year round.
I wonder if this will be seen as being something like the “race card”. Oh, there he goes, pulling the “Trump card”.
Trump Card going from “the card that automatically wins” to “playing the victim” seems possible …
Especially if it’s “playing the victim in a way that you win”. In card games, a “trump card” does sort-of feel like winning by cheating. You have a card that normally wouldn’t win a hand, but somehow magically has a special value that allows you to win. That does feel a lot like a guy who keeps on “winning” or at least avoiding the consequences anybody else would have to face just because of who he is.
I’ve made a point to remove the word from my vocabulary
I won’t correct them.