Yes, but it's unnecessary rhetoric that is distasteful enough when a political candidate uses it but downright disgusting when an office holder does it. He knows better and instead of being the leader of the country, he's playing political games (to be fair, that's pretty much par for the course for all of the political class). He didn't have to use that word, he chose to use that word, because he, or his speech writers, liked the connotation.