“Thank You for Your Attention to This Matter”: Brothel Madame/Prostitute Language at the U.S. White House. The Elephant in the Room Is Not an Eagle.

There is an elephant in the room—something everyone knows, everyone senses, everyone suspects, and everyone notices in the tone or in the use of a phrase such as, “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

This is the kind of closing phrase that a Westerner, or someone who deeply understands the dynamics, active ingredients, and psychology of English as used by first-language English speakers, would instinctively be unlikely to use in this particular context. It almost feels as though it comes from a second-language English speaker.

I sense that a few other groups in the USA demographics would most likely not speak or use it in this way.

Similarly, a well-read and highly educated Eastern European who speaks English fluently—fluently enough to function effectively, but who has not completely mastered the cultural and psychological dimensions of the English language—might write in precisely this manner when they have done something for which they expect a response that is less than compensatory.

It is almost like a query letter disguised as something altruistic or benevolent: “Thank you for your attention to this matter.” There is something condescending about it. In fact, I would argue that it can be insulting.

If this is assessed through an English or British mentality, we are not merely dealing with a neutral administrative phrase. We are dealing with a level of gravity and insult that is embedded in the language itself—the eye-poke that language can deliver without explicitly stating the insult.

If, however, we assess it from a global perspective, we can water down everything I have said and simply describe it as a particular linguistic convention.

But this is not White House language. It is not Trump’s language. It is not the language one would normally associate with Trump’s aides. And if it is, perhaps they are not aides who were raised with what one might call the soul of Western linguistic culture.

We can even say, humorously, that the letter—or whenever he uses the phrase “Thank you for your attention to this matter”—almost sounds like Melania writing a letter to her staff.

And so I conclude with a question.

Could Melania be the one drafting this letter for Trump?

That is a question I would describe as rhetorical, but I am not going to address it to the global public. I am going to address it to psychologists, analysts, and professionals alone.

Whenever Trump says—or closes a White House communication intended for a global audience—with “Thank you for your attention to this matter,” it makes one stop and think: hold on a minute. This sounds so beneath the language historically associated with the White House, a language that people have been accustomed to for roughly 249 to 250 years, since the formation of the Republic.

It is almost boutique language.

That is what I am saying.