'Becocked?' Trump stumbles into arcane English with bizarre interview glitch
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media next to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on board Air Force One en route to South Korea, October 29, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

President Donald Trump raised eyebrows Friday morning when his attempt to describe his unhappiness with the Federal Reserve sent analysts digging into the history of the English language.

Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman prompted the bizarre glitch during a sit-down interview with Trump when he asked if newly appointed Fed Chair Kevin Warsh should avoid hiking interest rates before the election.

The president paused briefly before describing the state of the Fed as “becocked.”

“You know in the old days...if you announced good numbers, interest rates went down because you were better credit,“ he claimed. “Makes sense, right? Now you are becocked — now it’s all a different thing. If you announce great numbers, everybody is depressed.”

The word stumped Trump's viewers.

"The Fed is now 'becocked?'" asked Bloomberg reporter Annmarie Horndern.

Analyst Tommy Christopher, reporting for The Jim Acosta Show, suggested the president seemed to be reaching for the Yiddish term “fakakta."

“At first, it seemed like maybe he was just eggcorning the word ‘fakakta’ (and maybe he was)," Christopher wrote.

Bulwark reporter Sam Stein signed onto this theory.

"When Trump said "becocked" ... it was pretty obvious he was searching for 'fakakta' which is yiddish for ridiculous," he wrote. "Seriously."

But Christopher had another thought. The analyst noted “becocked” is an arcane and rarely-used word that means 's-----.'"

He then quipped: 'That’s a sadly useful word these days.”