Ben Kamisar reports at The Hill:
Trump claimed he had come up with Cruz's line about making America great again and questioned whether he should have secured the rights to it ahead of the 2016 campaign.
"The line of 'Make America great again,' the phrase, that was mine, I came up with it about a year ago, and I kept using it, and everybody's now using it, they are all loving it," Trump said.
"I don’t know I guess I should copyright it, maybe I have copyrighted it."
Trump is talking nonsense. He did not coin the phrase. Reagan used it dozens of times. Here are just a few examples out of many.
- "For those who have abandoned hope, we'll restore hope and we'll welcome them into a great national crusade to make America great again!" ("Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Republican National Convention in Detroit," July 17, 1980. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=25970)
- "You and your forebears built this Nation. Now, please help us rebuild it, and together we'll make America great again." ("Remarks at the National Conference of the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO," March 30, 1981.Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=43616)
- "And together, we can make America great again—not just for ourselves, but I'm so happy to see all these young people here, because that's what this election is all about—America great again for them."("Remarks at a Montana Republican Party Rally in Great Falls ," October 28, 1982. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=41930)
- "True fairness means honoring our word. It means encouraging and rewarding every citizen who strives to excel and help make America great again.("The President's News Conference," June 28, 1983. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=41535)
- "We came together in a national crusade to make America great again, and to make a new beginning. Well, now it's all coming together." ("Remarks Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas," August 23, 1984. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=40290)
- "And on the night of July 17th, 1980, we left with a mutual pledge to conduct a national crusade to make America great again." ("Remarks at the Republican National Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana," August 15, 1988. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=36273)
