# A Small Loan Of A Million Dollars "A Small Loan of a Million Dollars" is a Donald Trump catchphrase from an October 2015 NBC Today town hall, where he described how his father funded his real estate career with what he called modest starter money. The line went viral within hours on Reddit and YouTube, becoming shorthand for wealthy people downplaying inherited advantages. ## Overview "A Small Loan of a Million Dollars" is a Donald Trump catchphrase pulled from an October 2015 NBC Today town hall, where the then-Republican presidential candidate described how his father funded his early real estate business[1]. Internet users seized on the phrase within hours, mocking Trump as out of touch for framing a million-dollar handout as a modest starter sum[3]. The quote works as ironic shorthand for wealthy people minimizing their inherited advantages. Adjusted for inflation, a 1968-era million would be worth roughly $6.8 million in 2015 dollars, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI calculator[1]. The line became a punchline in edited videos, YouTube commentary, hashtag jokes, and Urban Dictionary entries that logged it as Trump's way of bragging about his riches[5]. ## How It Spread Later that day, Reddit user jlew24asu submitted the story to r/NotTheOnion[2], where it collected more than 5,700 votes and around 2,000 comments over the following month[3]. Twitter users piled on with the hashtag #smallloan, joking that Trump was insulated enough to imagine a million-dollar 1960s real estate stake as a modest launchpad[1]. YouTube parodies followed within days. Between October 30 and November 19, 2015, uploads from Bajan Entertainment, Pyrocynical, Nexxiar, and Flater remixed the clip: one cut it against an exasperated reaction shot, another titled "A Million Dollars" pulled over 290,000 views in three weeks, and Flater spliced Trump's line into the 1986 Bonnie Tyler music video for "Holding Out for a Hero"[3]. The joke leaked into activism-shaped satire too. On November 17, 2015, a Change.org petition titled "Give Pyrocynical a Small Loan of a Million Dollars" collected over 2,300 signatures within a week, asking supporters to open their wallets for the YouTuber because "pyrocynicals father was not easy on him"[4]. ## How to Use The catchphrase typically appears as a sarcastic caption on posts where someone downplays a large sum of money, brags about family help while claiming to be self-made, or minimizes inherited advantages. It's often paired with photos of Trump, luxury goods, or wealth-flexing screenshots. A common convention swaps "a million dollars" for whatever absurd figure fits the target, keeping "a small loan of" in scare quotes to signal the joke. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is A Small Loan Of A Million Dollars? A Donald Trump quote from an October 2015 NBC Today town hall, where he described the seed money his father gave him to start his real estate business. It was mocked online as tone-deaf almost immediately[1]. ### Where did A Small Loan Of A Million Dollars come from? Trump said it on October 26, 2015, during a live Today segment in New Hampshire[1]. Reddit's r/NotTheOnion picked it up hours later, with the post drawing thousands of upvotes and comments[3]. ### What does A Small Loan Of A Million Dollars mean? It's shorthand for wealthy people minimizing their inherited advantages while claiming to be self-made, often used sarcastically about anyone downplaying a huge sum[5]. ### How do you use A Small Loan Of A Million Dollars? Drop the phrase as a caption on wealth-brag posts, or substitute "a million" with any other absurd figure to mock someone treating a large amount as trivial[4]. ### Is A Small Loan Of A Million Dollars still popular? It became a fixture of 2015 and 2016 election-cycle mockery of Trump's wealth, with edits, a Change.org petition, and hashtag jokes sustaining it as a classic political catchphrase[3]. ## References 1. [https://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/donald-trump-million-dollar-loan-dad-1.3289829]() 2. [https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/a-small-loan-of-a-million-dollars]() 4. [https://www.change.org/p/donald-trump-give-pyrocynical-a-small-loan-of-a-million-dollars-5c19a6f6-0474-425e-9ac1-0177e61d8f37]() 5. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=A%20Small%20Loan%20Of%20A%20Million%20Dollars]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/a-small-loan-of-a-million-dollars Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library