You’ve probably heard President Trump use the phrase “invisible enemy” to describe the coronavirus at some point, but it may surprise you to learn he’s actually deployed it nearly every single day for a month now, in what Politico columnist Jack Schafer argues is a deliberate “branding campaign, one fashioned to shape our attitudes toward the microbe to his liking.” Schafer continues, “By calling the virus ‘invisible,’ Trump implies that he can’t be responsible for its wreckage because who can be expected to see an invisible thing coming? And once the unseeable thing has arrived, there are limits to what one can be expected to do about it!” He goes on to point out the self-serving lie this advances, as it helps cover up the president’s reckless decision to ignore and downplay the coronavirus threat despite repeated urgent warnings. And calling the virus an “enemy” lets the president pretend he’s a wartime commander-in-chief, with the political bump that might bring and the patriotic loyalty it engenders. Again, though, as Shafer points out, the “enemy” moniker is misleading when we’re talking about a mindless disease.

Shafer notes that other Republican politicians have adopted this phrase, which is hardly surprising as it allows them to tie themselves to the president while also benefiting from it in the same way Trump does. But the larger lesson here is one that’s been playing out throughout the Trump administration — the president’s use of language to manipulate reality and gain political advantage. All politicians do this, of course, but Trump and his cronies have used language to incite and divide Americans in an especially destructive fashion. This linguistic strategy has been abetted by insufficient attention and pushback against it, both by the press and by the opposition. His more inflammatory language rightly gets attention, but lesser concoctions like “invisible enemy” too often slip under the radar.