Hillary Clinton is playing the 'woman's card'

Donald Trump on Sunday accused Hillary Clinton of unfairly trading on her gender while declaring Bill Clinton to be "fair game" as the former president hits the trail to campaign for his wife. "She's playing the woman's card," Trump said during an interview on Fox News, before turning his attention to Clinton's husband, declaring him "fair game because his presidency was really considered to be very troubled because of all the things that she's talking to me about." "She's mentioning sexism," Trump added, referencing a recent interview in which Clinton told the Des Moines Register the billionaire had "demonstrated a penchant for sexism." In a tweetstorm Saturday night, Trump wrote, "Hillary Clinton has announced that she is letting her husband out to campaign but HE'S DEMONSTRATED A PENCHANT FOR SEXISM, so inappropriate!" On Sunday morning, a little more than 12 hours later, Trump gloated about it. "I turned her exact words against her," he said.

'The schlong and short of it'

And so, an unlikely year in US politics nears its end with Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump sparking a debate about Yiddish semantics. It all stems from his use of the word "schlonged" when talking about Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton. Referring to her defeat by Barack Obama in the 2008 primary race, he told supporters in Michigan: "She was favoured to win and she got schlonged, she lost." Use of the word, which is from the Yiddish slang for penis, has been criticised but Mr Trump hit back on Twitter. "Once again, #MSM [mainstream media] is dishonest. 'Schlonged' is not vulgar. When I said Hillary got 'schlonged' that meant beaten badly," he wrote. Advertisement So was he correct to suggest it is a neutral, commonplace saying? Mr Trump tweeted that the phrase had been used in politics before, to refer to an earlier Democratic campaign.