In the final scene of my favorite movie The Last Boy Scout, Joe Hallenbeck (Bruce Willis) explains to his partner Jimmy Dix (Damon Wayans) how disputes are settled.
Joe Hallenbeck: We’re living in the nineties. You can’t just walk up to a guy and punch him in the face. You have to say some cool line first.
Jimmy Dix: Yeah, I get it. Like “I’ll be back.”
Joe Hallenbeck: Yeah, but something better. Hit him with a surfboard.
Jimmy Dix: And I’ll say, “Let’s go surfing.”
Joe Hallenbeck: Yeah, something like that.
Basically, if you want to take someone down or just send a warning, it has to have punch. Once you master this art, you usually don’t even need to get physical, because the person you’re warning will shit themselves from a good line alone. And if you add a calm expression à la Hannibal Lecter, success is practically guaranteed.
I once knew a boxer. He solved most of his problems with his fists. And very successfully. But because this way of dealing with conflicts caused him further trouble, he adopted this technique. One day he was walking his bull terrier in Žižkov, and coming toward him was a guy walking a pit bull. The guy was almost two meters tall, wearing a black leather jacket, no neck, and a back big enough for Boeings to land on. The type who basically lives in the gym. His pit bull wasn’t on a leash and aggressively went after my friend’s bull terrier. My friend politely told the guy to control his dog. The answer he got was: “Shut the fuck up.”
My friend calmly walked up to that mountain of muscle, looked up toward where the head was, and stared straight into the Golem’s face. After a moment, he pointed at his shoes and, without breaking eye contact, said in a calm voice:
“Take a good look at these shoes. Because this will be the last thing you remember when you wake up from the coma. When you’re pissing into a bag and learning to talk again.”
The Golem shit himself and walked away.
And then we have Donald Trump, who likes to project the image of a tough guy and who also likes to threaten not only people but entire states. When he wants to emphasize the strength of his statements, he often uses the phrase “like never before.” Years ago, for example, he warned North Korea that it would face fire like never before. Hell like never before would rain down on the Houthis in Yemen. And like never before, Iran would now taste it too.
Trump also uses this phrase when he wants to highlight something supposedly epoch-making and positive. Tariffs will bring America wealth no one has ever seen before. A Golden Age will come, unlike anything seen before. Investors are flocking to his America at a speed the world has never known…
A line like that works once or twice. But Trump used it 194 times just last year. During the 2024 campaign, when he was promising America prosperity and golden times, he used it 430 times (source: Roll Call, Factba.se). Because he doesn’t possess the intellect that would allow him to keep adding new dramatic effects to his proclamations, “like never before” has become a cliché that no reasonable person takes seriously anymore. A mere rhetorical reflex. An empty, giant NOTHING.