Many Republicans have been mocked for their command of the English language. Dan Quayle misspelled potato and it became a national crisis. George W. Bush famously made many tongue tied statements and grammatical faux pas like “Is our children learning?” Despite the snark it provoked, I doubt many really failed to understand the thoughts he was expressing.

Donald Trump also has a curious relationship with our native tongue. Many of us make fun of the limited number of (mostly superlative) adjectives in his vocabulary. That’s just a funny idiosyncrasy, but when he gets put on the spot or under pressure, he seems to forget that words and phrases actually mean things.

That’s when he sounds like the telemarketer trying to sell you a timeshare or the host of a late night infomercial excitedly proclaiming how his new fangled onion-chopper will literally change your life.

Yesterday’s statement from the President about North Korea’s nukes was one of those times.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” warned Mr. Trump from his golf club in Bedminster.

“They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” he told reporters. “He has been very threatening — beyond a normal statement,” Mr. Trump said of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. “As I said, they will be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before.”

I have no problem with the President taking a tough stance against North Korea. I’m on his side in that respect. The way he articulates his position doesn’t give me confidence though.

Promising “fire, fury, and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before” is such a hyperbolic statement that it makes me wonder whether he really knows what he’s talking about. I mean, the world has seen the Nazis raining blitzkrieg on England and atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The statement called to mind Saddam Hussein’s “mother of all battles” rhetoric more than anything else.

Then this morning he again dropped into condo salesman mode boasting about America’s nuclear arsenal.

My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 9, 2017

Does anyone believe that government works this fast? Donald Trump has been in office for 200 days and we’re to believe that he has increased the strength and power of our nuclear weapons?

The following tweet at least seemed a little more rational.

…Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 9, 2017

I have an inherent distrust of salesmen which undoubtedly colors my impression of President Let’s Make a Deal. I routinely get attacked for my refusal to throw our unconditional support behind Trump but trust doesn’t come with the office. I don’t trust a man because of the office he holds. Hucksters get elected all the time and when the president sounds like a huckster he’s not likely to get anything from me but skepticism.