Glad that’s cleared up. Donald Trump’s campaign spokesperson Hope Hicks revealed in a new interview whether the Republican presidential candidate has been saying “bigly” or “big league” throughout his bid for the Oval Office.
Hicks told The New York Times on Sunday, October 23, that the 70-year-old business mogul has indeed been saying “big league” and not “bigly” — which is actually a real word. Trump is known to use the term during speeches or debates when he is speaking about the work he will put into his projects and/or policies.
During the third and last presidential debate on October 19 in Las Vegas, Trump said the phrase while discussing his immigration plan.
“You can come back in, and you can become a citizen, but it’s very unfair. We have millions of people who did it the right way,” he told the crowd. “They’re online. They’re waiting. We’re going to speed up the process big league because it’s very inefficient.”
And during the first showdown between himself and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, the ex–Celebrity Apprentice host employed the expression while speaking about taxes. “I’m going to cut taxes big league, and you’re going to raise taxes big league. End of story,” he said.
The candidate’s son, Eric Trump, insisted to The Hollywood Reporter after the first debate that his father was, in fact, saying “big league.”
Following the final debate, Merriam-Webster shared via social media that “bigly” — defined as “of great strength” or “of great force” — was one of the top dictionary searches during Trump and Clinton’s [final] face-off.
“Top lookups right now: big(ly), hombre, entitlement, ombre, regime #debatenight,” the company’s official Twitter account wrote.