Image: Axios
As I remarked in the teasers to my last post, President Donald Trump’s Ukraine scandal desperately needs a good solid nickname.
But as Wikipedia ably demonstrates, the Watergate break-in did more than just bring down a presidency, it set a stiflingly lazy standard naming political scandals: just tack “-gate” onto the end. Former New Jersey governor and funny fat guy Chris Christie has at least two. And hey, what about Fajitagate? They use the term in other countries, like Canada’s Elbowgate. They even had Gategate in England, which is… I mean, you can’t come up with something more creative?
So count me as one of the first to call Trump’s Eastern European problem the Ukraine Shakedown. I don’t know where I first saw it used (perhaps a TPM article or the WaPo), so it’s not 100% original. But it sounds like a dance—like the hustle, but a lot more aggressive—and it’s easy to understand.
Got something better?
