In Languages: Meryn Stol voted up this answer. Zach Baker This is an affectation typical of New Yorkers. According to Wikipedia's New York dialect page: Reduction of /hj/ to /j/. New Yorkers typically do not allow /j/ to be preceded by /h/; this gives pronunciations like /ˈjumən/ and /judʒ/ for human and huge. Donald Trump has a classic New York accent, and his pronunciation of "huge" as "'uge" or "yuge" is lampooned even among some New Yorkers. As Seth Meyers once said about Trump's accent: I like that Trump is filthy rich, but nobody told his accent. His whole life is models and gold leaf and marble columns, but he still sounds like a know-it-all down at the OTB. But why? As we know, even old New York was once New Amsterdam, so a clue may be this note found in Wikipedia's article on Phonological history of English fricatives and affricates: Many dialects of Dutch also feature h-dropping, particularly the southwestern variants. So, and this is just speculation, this affectation may... - Meryn Stol