Sometimes people become words or phrases.
“I’ll put my John Hancock here on the contract.”
However, it is not a compliment to—
Be a Vandal
- a member of a member of a Germanic people who in the 5th century A.D. ravaged Gaul and Spain, settled in Africa, and in A.D. 455 sacked Rome.
- a person who willfully or ignorantly destroys or mars something beautiful or valuable. www.wordreference.com/...
Be a Benedict Arnold, a Quisling, a Judas
Benedict Arnold: The name Americans love to hate. His name is so synonymous with the word "traitor" in the U.S., calling someone a "Benedict Arnold" can still cause fists to fly over 200 years later. Arnold wasn't a bad general — his skills were critical to early American victories, especially at Saratoga. However, Arnold felt passed over and used...[H]e offered to surrender West Point to the British in exchange for money and a general's commission in the British Army...
Vidkun Quisling: Nothing makes a traitor more heinous than collaborating with the Nazis. Quisling was the President of Norway from 1942 until the end of WWII. While most presidents in Europe end their tenure with a wave and a smile, Quisling's ended with a trial and execution for carrying out the "Final Solution" in Norway.
www.wearethemighty.com/…
Judas Iscariot: Judas Iscariot is famous for being a disciple of Jesus who betrayed him in exchange for money. Of the 12 disciples of Jesus, "only Peter gets more lines of coverage from the Gospel writers than does Judas," wrote William Klassen in his book "Judas: Betrayer or Friend of Jesus?" www.livescience.com/…
Via Borowitz Report on Trump Family Treason
“Traitors put a lot of thought, planning, and subtlety into every one of their actions and utterances,” he said. “When I look at these so-called acts of treason, I have to ask, Where’s the professionalism? Where’s the work ethic? The sloppiness and sheer idiocy of it all is jaw-dropping.”
Speaking of his treasonous colleagues in Hell, including Judas Iscariot, Vidkun Quisling, and the entire Vichy government, Arnold said, “Every traitor down here is shaking his head.” www.newyorker.com/...
Build a Potemkin Village
Grigory Potyomkin was a dashing 18th century Russian nobleman who intrigued in courts, smote his enemies upon the steppes and allegedly wooed Catherine the Great. It was while he was courting his nation's comely Tsarina — at least according to legend — that his name came to forever stand for something insubstantial….
Recent historical work has proved the tale in part apocryphal, but the legend stuck. A "Potemkin village" signifies any deceptive or false construct, conjured often by cruel regimes, to deceive both those within the land and those peering in from outside. content.time.com/...
Create a Ponzi Scheme
In the 1920s, whenever a generous person wanted to send a piece of mail overseas, he or she would probably also buy an international reply coupon. This was handy for the recipient because it was a voucher that paid for the postage required to reply back to the sender. Because this was a relatively common system at the time, no one questioned Charles Ponzi (an Italian immigrant to the United States) when he found an intriguing investment opportunity in the process.
Ponzi's investment idea was plausible: He could buy reply coupons in a different country where they were cheaper, and then sell them in the United States where they were worth more [source: Trex]. The difference was profit that he could share with his investors. He sucked his investors in by promising 50 percent returns in 45 to 90 days.
The hitch? When he tried to carry through on his business idea, it didn't work out as well in practice as it did in theory…. Nevertheless, he kept the bad news to himself. Every day, new, excited investors who heard about the idea wanted in and handed over their savings. Ponzi decided to take the money, but not run. He kept up the ruse by paying off his initial investors with some of the new money that was pouring in and pocketed some for himself. Because his early investors were making money, no one was complaining. money.howstuffworks.com/...
His name is Mudd
Dr. Mudd gave medical help to John Wilkes Booth, who broke his leg while escaping after shooting Lincoln in 1865. Mudd was convicted of being Booth's conspirator, although the evidence against him was ambiguous and circumstantial, and many historians argue that he was innocent of any murderous intent. He has since been pardoned and there's even a Facebook site dedicated to salvaging his reputation.
Actually, whether Dr. Mudd was innocent or not is of little consequence in regard to the origin of 'your name is mud', as it was in general circulation long before Lincoln was assassinated.
This citation comes from John Badcock (a.k.a. 'J. Bee’) in Slang - A Dictionary of the Turf etc., 1823:
"Mud - a stupid twaddling fellow. ‘And his name is mud!’ ejaculated upon the conclusion of a silly oration, or of a leader in the Courier."
www.phrases.org.uk/...
The name Trump should be synonymous with villainy, as well
— A scam as obvious as a Trump
— A Trumpian Degree of Lying.
— A Trumpian Level Melt Down or as
Mentally & Emotionally Unstable as a Trump
— As Racist as a Trump.