During the first presidential debate held on September 27, Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump's tax plan 'Trumped up trickle down” by saying “It is, as I said, trumped up trickle down. Trickle down did not work. It got us into the mess we are in 2008 and 2009.”
I think the word, “trumped up” is a witty play of word conceived by Hillary in combination of a proper noun, "Trump," an idiom, "trump up" and with the political economy jargon, “trickle down” of the wealth from the rich to the poor.
Though OALD defines "trump sth up" as "to make up a false story about sb/ sth, especially accusing them of doing sth wrong," I'm not very sure of what "trumped up trickle down" here in Hillary's context exactly means. Trickle down policy by itself does not seem to be any wrong doing. Could you translate it into plain English?
Best Answer
Trumped up: It is indeed a play on the The Donald's surname. However, if we were to write or talk about trumped-up in any other context then it would most likely mean a bogus accusation or false criminal charge leveled by someone (or by some authority) against someone.
Trumped-up: fraudulently concocted; deliberately done or created to make someone appear to be guilty of a crime - trumped-up charges. (M-W)