They kill them like they’re candy
Posted: July 25, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: expressions, humor, language, malaphors, mixed idioms, Trump, words 3 CommentsDuring a press briefing addressing the ongoing military conflict and humanitarian crisis involving Iran, Trump was asked about the actions of the Iranian regime. He used a malaphor to highlight the random, widespread slaughter of civilians and protesters by hardline authorities earlier in the year:
“Young kids. They kill ’em. They kill ’em like they’re … like they’re … uhh … candy. It’s crazy what they do. They treat them so badly. They’re just killing people at random and nobody talks about it.” https://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/kill-them-uh-candy-trump-161044395.html
This is a mashup of “killing them with kindness” (responding to someone’s hostility with politeness and warmth) and “like taking candy from a baby” (a task that is extremely easy and takes little effort). A shout out to Mike Kovacs for hearing this one and sending it in!
Malaphors 
[like] Pietrucha, Martin T reacted to your message: ________________________________
I think neither of the proposed idioms is anything like what Trump was trying to say. Maybe “kill them like flies”? This sounds more like Trump losing his mind than a mixup of two idioms. “Killing them like hotcakes” would be more of a malaphor. And isn’t taking candy from a baby supposed to be difficult?
Taking candy from a baby means to do something easily, so it fits in context. Killing them like flies might be what he was thinking instead of kindness. Good point. It might be a malaphor stretch but I thought it was such a strange, goofy statement that he was mixing idioms (once again). Thanks for sharing your thoughts Pierre!