There are principally three legitimate reasons to use quotation marks. One, to indicate words a person or people spoke or wrote, one time or habitually. Two, for a title, like “Some Enchanted Evening.” Three, to in some way cast doubt on the word or words within the quote mark. Trump actually carried this off on Jan. 13, when he tweeted that the dossier supposedly showing Russians had damaging information on him was “Probably … released by ‘Intelligence’ even knowing there is no proof, and never will be.”

But … something else is clearly going on. Trump actually wants to say his “Apprentice” swamped Schwarzenegger’s in the ratings, that the people who disapprove of his relationship with Putin are stupid, that he is the leader of a movement, and so on. The quotation marks show the struggles of someone ill at ease with setting down words and sentences. When a familiar word or phrase comes to the mind of these people, they’re not sure what to do with it; sometimes, they’re more comfortable picking it up with protective gloves.