''Drain the swamp'' is a phrase which has frequently been used by politicians since the 1980s. The phrase can allude to the physical draining of swamps which is conducted to keep

mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning " gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "li ...

populations low in order to combat

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

, prevalent during the time in

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

on supposed swampy grounds. It has been used as a metaphor by: *

Helen Hunt Jackson Helen Hunt Jackson (pen name, H.H.; born Helen Maria Fiske; October 15, 1830 – August 12, 1885) was an American poet and writer who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Native Americans by the United States government. She de ...

(1830–1885) who wrote that to "clear the swamp" (the first obvious step to reclaiming "poisonous and swampy wilderness") was an apt metaphor for how to start addressing "the disgrace to us of the present condition of our Indians." * Winfield R. Gaylord (1870–1943) to describe the socialist desire to "drain" the "capitalist swamp". * Victor L. Berger (1860–1929), who in his book ''Broadsides'' referred to changing the capitalist system as "drain ngthe swamp". * A. Philip Randolph (1889–1979) and

Bayard Rustin Bayard Rustin (; March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an African American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. Rustin worked with A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement, ...

(1912-1987) in A Freedom Budget for All Americans (1966), argued that "The breeding grounds of crime and discontent will be diminished in the same way that draining a swamp cuts down the breeding of mosquitoes, and the causes of discrimination will be considerably reduced." * Ronald Reagan, who called to "drain the swamp" of bureaucracy in the federal government in 1983 when commissioning the

Grace Commission The Private Sector Survey on Cost Control (PSSCC), commonly referred to as the Grace Commission, was an investigation requested by United States President Ronald Reagan, authorized in on June 30, 1982. In doing so President Reagan used the now fam ...

. *

Jessica Stern Jessica Eve Stern (born February 11, 1958) is an American scholar and academic on terrorism. Stern serves as a research professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. Earlier she had been a lecturer at Harvard Universit ...

in "Preparing for a War on Terrorism" (November 2001), where she calls on the U.S. to see failing and failed states as sources and sanctuaries for terrorists and terrorism (the swamp) and to use foreign aid and soft power to combat them (the draining). * Pat Buchanan during his 2000 presidential campaign , when he invoked the saying in opposition to the dominant political parties: "Neither

Beltway A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist i ...

party is going to drain this swamp: it's a protected wetland; they breed in it, they spawn in it". * Nancy Pelosi in 2006 while announcing her

100-Hour Plan The 100-Hour Plan was a United States Democratic Party political strategy detailing the actions the party pursued upon assuming leadership of the 110th Congress on January 4, 2007. The strategy was announced before the 2006 midterm elections. ...

in response to more than a decade of Republican rule. *

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

to describe his plan to fix problems in the federal government. In the three weeks before the 2016 election, he tweeted "Drain the swamp" 79 times, usually as a hashtag, and he tweeted the word "swamp" another 75 times in the four years following that election. His 2020 campaign's senior advisor, Jason Miller, and his 2020 campaign manager, Bill Stepien, referred to the

Commission on Presidential Debates The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) is a nonprofit corporation established in 1987 under the joint sponsorship of the Democratic and Republican political parties in the United States. The CPD sponsors and produces debates for U.S. pre ...

as "swamp monsters." Protests against the role of Goldman Sachs alumni in the Trump administration also used the metaphor. *

Traditional Unionist Voice The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. In common with all other Northern Irish unionist parties, the TUV's political programme has as its sine qua non the preservation of Northern Ireland's place ...

on the front cover of their manifesto for the 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election * Henry Bolton, the leader of

UKIP The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest p ...

when referring to its National Executive Committee (NEC) on 22 January 2018.

References

{{reflist American political catchphrases Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign Sayings