"On Twitter in particular, Trump doesn’t exclaim; he expectorates."
Nice, Frank. I tend to think of his pronouncements more as projectile vomiting.
65
Donald Trump mangles the English language the way Archie Bunker mangled it in episodes of "All In The Family." Anyone who watched the show knows what I mean. "Groinacologist!!!??" When I heard Archie say that I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe.
23
"Trump is as inept at English as he is at governing. He’s oxymoronic: a nativist who can’t really speak his native tongue."
What terrific observations. I don't know--his insistence on calling his call "perfect" begs the question, "perfect for whom?"
Sure it was perfect for him in relaying his quid pro quo meaning, but a trainwreck for his interlocutor who likely felt bodyslammed from 10 different directions. Talk about damned if you do and damned if you don't.
I think because Trump sees the world differently than most, he has to mangle his language, to be a man of the people, even his swearing which is increasing in ferocity at rallies.
For a man who never went to war (earning his "spurs" on a letter from his doctor, said Jim Mattis), he has the mouth of a sailor (or soldier or pilot).
Folks say repeated cursing reveals a lack of vocabulary--or reflection. Trump has plenty of the latter, of course: his own, mirrored back to him by his numerous sycophants.
24
On election day 2016 I thought about making a sign that said, "Do you really want Donald Trump to be a role model for your children and grandchildren?" and holding it up in front of my affluent suburban polling places. I'm sorry I didn't because that question is more relevant today than ever before. Do we really want our children and grandchildren to call their classmates "human scum" and describe their teacher's threats of punishment for misbehavior as a "lynching?"
Yes, Donald Trump is damaging the office of the presidency, our Constitution, the rule of law, fair elections and our relationships with the world community, but what is he doing to our children and young people? The cost is incalculable.
60
The development of intelligent speech is rivaled only by the mastery of fire as an instrument of human progress. It is with good reason that Johannes Gutenberg (moveable type) was chosen as Man of the Millennium for his contribution to culture. The written word made permanent, observations that had previously been fleeting and subject to the vagaries of memory. Books and... newspapers are, of course, the derivative of speech.
What happens, however, when speech is polluted by deliberate falsehoods for no other purpose than mean spirited advantage? When Trump refers to vast swathes of Americans as human scum, spies, traitors, and even invokes Stalin's favorite, "enemies of the people", what has happened to language?
Quite simply, the instrument of progress has been debased and transformed. It has become a tool of control, manipulation, oppression, and self-serving exploitation. The vehicle of connection (speech), critical to serious thought, has become a tawdry bullwhip provoking fear as an accomplice to the leering bully and his ends.
Did WaPo's catalogue of this (Trump's lies topped 12M in August) cause the front-runner in an 8 billion dollar Pentagon contract (Amazon - also owned by Jeff Bezos) their loss?
The exchange of ideas (dialogue) is natural and necessary. Reality is multi-dimensional. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle created the bedrock of modern thought on that foundation. Trump is the opposite. His methods are those of inarticulate, chest-thumping primitives.
27
"Human scum", and this kind of language endears him to his followers? This is the language that evangelicals and other religious people want to hear from a president or anybody for that matter? "Lynching", "Treasonous", "Nasty" and on and on is what people feel is appropriate? Would you, after being called out by these words, want to work for someone like this? Yet his supporters feel the rest of us who didn't vote for him are not giving him a chance. Really?
34
I am an Asia studies specialist and what I find surprising is how the media has not yet figured out where Trump picked up the term “human scum.” It was a new term of abuse coined by Kim Jong Un about 5 years ago. Indeed, it got media attention then. Go Google it. Those of us who read North Korean speeches trying to uncover whatever is new took note. The first time I saw that phrase it was used to denounce defectors and escapees. So it begs the question, is Trump taking speech cues from Kim Jong Un?
43
Yet again!
Yet again it must be said that the President is mentally challenged at best, and moving fast along the continuum of criminally insane.
He’s infinitely ignorant - because he can’t read, so can’t get smarter.
He lives in a fantasy work, an ocean of self praise, adulation from others, and vengeance towards anyone who denies him his desires: his “enemies.”
Everything and every day must be perfect, as hell is both infinitely blameless, and always “wins.”
If this sounds like a three year old, you’re right... because Trump’s mind is stuck right about there.
The tragedy is the Administration minions who witness all this, and so much more - and yet enable him! His Cabinet sees all, and KNOW he’s ignorant as a rock, as well as deranged. They have a front seat to the 25th Amendment, and yet they do nothing!
He can’t speak, because there’s nothing there. Nothing but hall of cracked mirrors, reflecting fantasies of glory and profit, and the leering faces of those who deny it to him, and so must be punished...
IMPEACH AND REMOVE - NOW!
34
The Butcher of English cuts the meat so badly , that it winds up in an inedible pile , all tough and gnarly.
In Bruni’s excellent piece, he neglected to mention that every one of the expectorant vile descriptive trump spits out, he’s actually raging about himself. That he’s the human scum, that he’s wants to lynch, that he’s shifty, that he’s crazy. But, I guess by now, we all know that.
22
“Human scum” has a nice old-fashioned ring to it. It’s the kind of insult people used when everyone was closer to the soil and a word like “scum” brought forth vivid, familiar imagery in the hearer’s mind.
3
When he says “perfect” he means that his message of extortion was delivered clearly to Zelensky but the phone call was void of any direct statements that could implicate him in a criminal way. This has been Trump’s MO for his entire career: ethics be damned, just make sure you don’t get successfully prosecuted. Perfect.
16
Trump speaks at the third grade level, like many of his faithful.
23
Trump should be arrested, indicted and tried for murdering his own native language.
21
Trump could rise at a rally and say, "I'm really stupid and so are you!" The crowd would cheer with characteristic delirium.
He and they despise all who can write, spell, think and reason.
45
Let’s face it, Donnie is not clever, sly or anything but stupid. The man is a dimwit that fell into money by being born. He has his entire life, especially now the opportunity to educate himself and doesn’t. He is lazy and willfully ignorant.
How dim witted do you need to be that these are qualities to be admired?
17
Donald Trump:
Egotist?
Strategist?
Nationalist?
How about Stupidest?
17
Frank Bruni overlooked one adjective that sums up Donald Trump's language: "ugly." The man has an ugly mind and an ugly spirit. It's his inner swamp.
35
Our "President" is a monster, a caricature of an actual human being. Enough.
18
The big, beautiful, black Wall is stupid. But I do support the one on the Colorado/Mexican border, like trump does.
8
Splenetic..well wow....that's a word you don't use everyday....so Trump needs immediate medical attention. For a ...Splenectomy !! Impeach,Remove,Indict,and,,,Convict !!! The saddest thing to me about this brilliant NYT article is that it has taken so long for public opinion to change regarding Impeachment...and really it's.. for the Inquiry that Public Opinion is ever so slowly inching towards....not necessarily Impeachment and Removal. He has 66 Million followers on Twitter and raised Millions in a short time out pacing his Democratic rivals. Yet...the man has not succeeded at anything! Mexico never Paid,NK,the Gov't Shutdown,the China Trade War...none succeeded. The Kurds were abandoned and some became victims of inhumane killings. Our troops were replaced by Russians ! The Deficit is higher than when Obama was in office and we nearly had a Deppression. He's had an 80% turnover rate in the most dysfunctional Administration in American History. Yet...he still has a Fox Nation of American supporters Addicted to Alternative Fact Fox Food...they're basically...Junkies! If our Democracy was not in such peril, if our National Security was not compromised,if our standing in the world was not lowered...all this would be really comical! I'll never forget the photo of Trump laughing in the White House with the Russians after he fired Comey. How UNAMERICAN was that? Trump support is not funny...it's ...UNAMERICAN and UNPATRIOTIC ! MAGA? What a ..MESS!!!
10
Mr Bruni, My disgust with Trump is second to none, but your
attack on his wreckage of the English language is no more an embarrassment than your knee-jerk impulse to buzz words--epic and gorgeous are among your favorites. Not to mention your apparently uncontrollable addiction to alliteration. Stop patting your self on the back.
6
To read about such an important topic written with such clarity and substance is why Bruni's op-eds present such an impressive foil to Trump's gibberish.
6
Why just this morning, Trump was describing, in lurid detail, the last moments of a terrorist. Instead of lifting Americans spirits that a terrorist had been found and had killed himself, Trump decided to debase us once again by describing the terrorists cries, and celebrating the loss of life of the young children who were with the terrorist, and then, of course, praising Putin.
I used to think “we” were better then this, but there are a substantial number of Americans who love the rhetoric of hate, ignorance and degradation. I imagine Trump sounds exactly like Hitler, if Hitler had been speaking in English. Evil, stupid and full of lies.
18
He's speaking English?
14
In addition to being a malignant narcissistic sociopath, Trump is also quite possibly suffering from dementia.
Sleep tight!
13
Mr Trump speaks to his base in the language of deplorables.
12
At Least Trump is in the process of an Impeachment Inquiry! Even if the Senate votes it down, history will record his evil and narcissistic deeds.
Remember when Obama won a Nobel and Trump thought He shd win a Nobel just like Obama? Ha ha! Can you imagine Trump winning an award for anything benevolent? Let's just get rid of him asap!
12
The truly sad thing is that the jerk in the white house doesn't know enough about the English language to even understand what Bruni is saying. To sad for words!
7
I think that all of Trump's uncouth boorishness, inluding his language, correlates with his ostensible love of devouring cheeseburgers, held in the hands.
Mr. Bruni is qualified better than anyone else on the NYT staff to analyse the connection between Trump's food pfeferences, and his language and political views.
1
frank forgets all the untoward names he has been called by the left as well as the lies told daily by bad boys like Schiff. to be listened to you have to cover both sides which the NYT never does.
5
Your raccoon metaphor hits the nail on the head here. Every time this pathetic little man opens his mouth- or his Twitter- I cringe at just how low he’s brought the state of our nation and world.
3
Trump is simply malignantly, ignorantly, insane. Every word, every lie, out of his mouth confirms that.
5
COVFEFFE!!!
5
A human scam. Unwidely popular.
1
Watching Barack Obama speak at Elijah Cummings' funeral made clear one of the saddest things that happened on the night of November 8, 2016. We began the downward descent from one of the most eloquent presidents in the history of this country to the most puerile, vulgar, unintelligent and often unintelligible president. How could this have happened so fast?
47
Many commenters here have analyzed "Trump speak" & so, I just want to add how delightful Frank Bruni's words are to read. Bruni's use of the English language is a marvel & a gift for all who take the time to really dance along with his phrases, his masterly skills with literal & figurative tools of language.
It's truly tragic that Trump will never see or learn from this specific column of Bruni's - because 60% of Americans know he doesn't read & he doesn't learn whatever the reason: medical, psychological &/or intentional.
8
That a large chunk of the US finds his rhetoric despicable and another contingent feels the opposite is what needs to be analyzed and understood.
11
Tortured English? Try cruelty, sadism, narcissism--anything but making it sound like the man is struggling to express himself. He doesn't have much command of the language, yes, but that's the least of our worries.
7
I’ve noticed that the more Trump’s lies and facade are revealed the more he uses violent imagery. I wouldn’t put anything past him as he’s cornered.
6
Any therapist Trump doesn’t have sees this jumbled language as the neon sign of a severely disordered mind. Before he was elected it was clear that he was mentally unfit. I’m sure Grand Rounds in psych. departments around the globe have had plenty of material since 2016 and even more so now that this impaired man is seriously losing his wits.
Frank, this is a gem, thanks.
12
It all comes down to the invertibrate Republicans never complaining, in public, about what kind of monster resides in the Oval Office. They stand by their man in their spineless way. They have no problem supporting a business fraud, charity fraud, sexual predator, 3-time philanderer, chronic liar and incurable narcissist.
Had Obama or Clinton committed virtually any one of Trump's crimes, in or out of office, the venom-dripping Republican members of the House and Senate would have been dragging a guillotine into the public square. But Trump approves lifetime judicial appointments for anyone recommended by The Federalist Society, and it matters not if they have little or no courtroom experience. No experience on the bench? Not a problem. No experience litigating in court? No problem there, either. As long as they represent the right-wing demands of so-called "think tanks" for ultra-conservatism, and are young enough to carry that flag for 50 years.
If a Democrat can actually win back the White House, don't expect a lot of inventive governance. He/she will be spending the entire first term trying to clean up messes left behind by Trump and his sycophantic enablers. If anyone dismisses such a task as light duty, just as former President Obama. Eight years of Republican mismanagement was left on Obama's desk to clean up. But McConnell, denying his party's rolet in The Great Recession, refused Obama any cooperation to clean up the mess.
Trump's mess will be harder still.
11
“Lynch” I believe originated as a term in Ireland. The story I heard while touring Galway, Ireland was that the magistrate of Galway, Lynch, hung his own son by his neck out of his room window after learning that his son murdered a Spanish gentleman near the Spanish Arch in Galway, which was built in 1584 or so. Thus the term, to lynch, or lynching came to be.
There will be a new word in the English dictionary someday - “Trumped”. I’m not sure what meaning people will attach to it, but it won’t refer to the card game of Bridge, and will definitely be pejorative.
2
You score again, Mr Bruni! Brilliance and decency at the same time!
4
All these words here, thousands of them.
Tillerson boiled it down to one word.
3
But what to make of his staff who say crazy things too? Stephanie Grisham just said: “John Kelly was unequipped to handle the genius of our great president.” Huh? Who talks like this? Sounds like something out of North Korea.
25
I’m sorry, Frank, that you’re losing your mind over Trump’s inarticulate spurts of speech. I’m also sorry, you’re not alone. I tired quickly of his bloviating frat boy sound bites and incessant, fat kid bullying when I was a teen in NY in the 80s and he would appear on tv. I officially lodged my complaint about his illiteracy on Jan. 21, 2017. I was on my way to teach a marketing communications class and was skimming the headlines on Twitter. I follow many London journos/media and saw tweets exclaiming the same thing, one snarked, “Those Yanks Misspelling Honoured Again.” Right, we spell it sans “u”—so I clicked and there it was in all its gory: @potus “I am honered [sic] to serve you, the great American people . . .” I walked into class, put it up on the screen and stood there. A week into the semester, students looked at the tweet and groaned. I told them, This doesn’t happen. Not for a global brand and certainly not from the White House where everything is measured and checked by several senior PR professionals. It was a sign of the disgrace of the presidency and inelegant communications to come. As he would say, Bad!
1
Like Eliza Doolittle, Trump's language pegs his education, class and heritage. This imitation Leo Gorcey mangles the English language and pretends it means he's grassroots, when it really means he's dumb as sod. In the same way that his foreign policy can only be understood once you put Putin in charge, so it goes with his personna. He's still starring in a reality show. It explains the Norm Crosby malapropisms, the mad Dr.Irwin Corey delivery, the Buddy Hacket cursing and the Don Rickles insult humor. Add to that the Rodney Dangerfield slouch and the "I get no respect" routine and it all comes into focus. He's a clown because it's all he's qualified to be.
9
why bother to comment on his misuse of the english language when his misuse of the government is far worse?
7
I’d love to help hold trump down while Nancy Pelosi washes his mouth out with soap.
7
He reminds me of Hitler and his book Mein Kampf. Instead of writing a two volume book while sitting in jail, Trump tortures us via Twitter while sitting in his chair at the White House or his "talking points" at one of his pep rallies or at his so called press conference. His ability to turn the engish language to his advantage shows how capable he is to drive his ugly message in this disisive political atmosphere. Fear is the message, fear of the press, immigrants, fear of the bogeyman. So whatever use of his words that he spews whether twitter or his mouth, Trump so far has the advantage.
4
Thank goodness he doesn't drink.
5
A spot on op/ed ., the equal of Maureen Dowd's recent piece.
Trumps incoherent drivel is an insult to the intelligence of any American not taken in by his dictatorial charisma.
2
Yes. This column is Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuggge!
3
Well, Canada and USA have something in common. USA has a President whom massacred the English language. Canada has a Prime Minister whom massacred the French language.
Congratulations to both countries!
2
America doesn't need a Grammarian at this point.....America
needs Medical Doctors to insist on proper examinations,
both physical , mental and psychological of what should be obvious to even a layman that this person has diminished capacity
and may well be close to a breaking point which could imperil
our country.....every man, woman and child.......
These men and women who continue to protect him as the only way they can protect themselves and the jobs they have made meaningless......need to do what is right. trump is nothing without those willing to be complicit.......We should ask them about the rewards they are accruing in this money-free-for-all.
Should we drop e pluribus unum.....and initiate "follow the money?"
The Ethnic cleansing of the Kurds, our ally, which lost thousands
of lives fighting with us, only to protect financial assets of the trump Organization in Turkey should be more than any American should have to bear.
Kurdish blood is on his hands.....whose blood will be next?.....
and will any of us, no matter how young, be able to remove the stain of the treachery done to the Kurds.....done in our name....
in your name and in mine in our lifetimes? American ethnic cleansing?...Have I lived 82 years to learn this about my country?
We have become nothing....There are no "dinner table issues"
which should take the place of the need to preserve our National Honor......none
7
Well written Frank Bruni.
3
The President needs a straitjacket, an orange onesie, and have his mouth rinsed out with soap, though not necessarily in that order.
7
For me the adjective " perfect"means the following: when the Dimwit -in-Chief who can't speak, spell or tweet English properly will be gone for good from the Oval Office, from our sight, from our media, from earth... I know many immigrants, yours truly included, who speak and write English better than he does. Don't even bother buying him a dictionary, he will throw it in the bin.
2
Frank’s description of Trump’s language: oxymoronic
My description of Trump’s every word and deed: moronic
1
I believe Rex Tillerson when he said Trump was a moron.
So much stems from that basic quality. However, he is not your run of the mill moron who can only harm so many people in his life. He is a rich, powerful moron, who can destroy people, companies, and countries on a whim to get what he wants. Having grown up as a rich moron he used the defense that is available to all rich people, fear and power to cover his deficiencies and insecurities. Fear that he might destroy them. Power used to bully, harass, threaten, bribe, and con people.
Wealth and power has been used for millennia from royal courts to dictatorships to cover deficiencies using bluster and bravado and I'm powerful or rich so I am a right. But being a moron is at the base of it all. If he were intelligent he wouldn't have to be the bully that he is. If he were intelligent he wouldn't need a cadre and lawyers and "fixers". He might well still be evil if he was intelligent, but he wouldn't have to be because he wouldn't have to act like a toddler who doesn't know how to get what he wants other than by screaming, stamping his feet, taking, pushing other kids around.
1
He ain't talkin' to yous Frank.
And folks, that's why he cancelled the White House subscription to the New York Times. The newspaper uses BIG words...it's not the Archie comics!
3
Great closing para, Mr. Bruni.
Trump's lifelong history as an extreme narcissist, business fraud, and sexual predator was well known to the Republican leadership that accepted and promoted him as the face of their party. Trump is who he is and always has been, an ignorant egomaniac.
Trump is but a symptom of a more serious problem. The crisis this nation faces is the broken political and electoral system that allowed the GOP to select and place the ignorant destroyer of our government, Donald Trump in the White House.
3
It's unfortunate that so many Americans think that Trump(et) is a successful business person. Having worked with many senior executives and military officers, I realized that Trump was a sham as soon as he opened his mouth to speak. His lack of command of the English language immediately gave him away. In no way is Trump at the level of peer CEOs. He is, after all, the legacy of a family business/crime organization.
I've had conversations with factory floor supervisors who are more articulate, including off-color language, as well.
363
Thank you so much for this cathartic read. You missed nothing. I've always been struck by how opaque Donald Trump's eyes look on camera, thinking, hmm...and the eyes are the windows to the soul. But you are absolutely right. The conduit that he cannot shade is his choice and usage of words.
4
Unfortunately, regardless of whether POTUS is impeached or loses reelection, unlike his predecessors, he won't go quietly (or gently) into the night.
5
I hesitate to use the word perfect, but I did indeed find your assessment to be perfect in describing the aural torture we are subjected to when this president speaks his Mother tongue.
8
Gee, remember when we thought George Dubyah Bush was a joke? His verbal flubs were nothing in retrospect. The problem is that too many of us remember the eloquence of JFK and Obama.
How about we amend the Constitution? Instead of requiring the president to be 35, we require a mental age of at least 35? For Trump, that would allow an IQ of around 50, which would probably have excluded him.
1
The phrases 'liberal elite' * 'intellectual elite' are often grist for the mill. I submit that the language Trump is torturing is CONSERVATIVE ELITE.
1
RE: Trump’s Language from Frank Bruni’s Op-Ed dated 10/26
October 27th, Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday, Is celebrated by THE WRITER’S ALMANAC, an online newsletter. His brief description of Roosevelt includes strengths of character, that couldn’t be in higher contrast to the “perfect stable genius” currently in the White House, an inept leader who governs by gut, tweet, fear, intimidation, xenophobia, and misogyny. He divides our country to stroke his ego in route to dismantling our democracy. His character is immoral and indecent. He neither reads nor speaks well.
By contrast, we think of Theodore Roosevelt as one of our most interesting presidents. Garrison Keeler lists these as just some of the president’s attributes, which are quoted below:
• When he took up politics. As a progressive politician in New York, he “fought monopolies, regulated industry, championed immigrants and the middle class, and supported de-segregation and women’s suffrage”
• After McKinley’s assassination,Teddy Roosevelt became the youngest person, at the age of 32,to ever serve as President of the USA, from 1901-1909.
• He was a voracious reader, and read a book a day before breakfast.
•He protected nearly 230 million acres of land, 150 forests, and created 5 national parks.
• He wrote some 3 dozen books, the first (History of Naval War of 1812) was used as a textbook on military history and naval wars; and, it became required reading in the U.S. Navy.
WE DESERVE MUCH BETTER IN 2020!
8
Language is the window into people's souls.
Trump, Pence, William Barr, Mitch McConnell, Fox News, most of the Republican Party, Trump's debased base, and Vladimir Putin have found their soulmate in Trump.
I loved the rich language in this column today!
5
Dogs. Are loyal, noble and dependent on humans. Trump has never had a pet. Why does he pepper his rants with "die like a dog?' when most of us animal lovers do our best for them at end of life?
3
I hope Trump does not get elected just so the Times can talk about something else. Who cares if the man is not good with grammar. He is richer than almost anyone reading this and is only the 45th person ever to be elected President of the US, the absolute most powerful office in the world. What have any of you done? What did you do to make life better? What is your name on?
His odious speech today at 9AM on every channel about the killing of the head of ISIS....was his worst speech yet. Brutal language; histrionics; hyperbole....He does not speak like any other president in our history. It is a shame and an abomination. Congress, please do something.
5
Both you and Mo Dowd distill The Don to his essence in your columns today. And Eau de Trump stinks.
4
We folks who read the Times are pretty smart on average and write literate, articulate comments with correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and syntax.
We KNOW DJT butchers the English language and has a vocabulary of about 30 words.
STOP WRITING ABOUT SUCH AN UNIMPORTANT TOPIC!
Tell us what’s happening with the 200,000 displaced Syrians and Kurds!
Write about the book "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century" by Timothy Snyder!
The Yale historian’s important book argues that we must learn from the horrors of the past if we want to protect our democracy!
Carry this book and read it until it’s dog-eared!
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/20/on-tyranny-twenty-lessons-from-twentieth-century-timothy-snyder-review
Write about why we have the sickest people in the world with the most expensive health care.
Explain why public schools are so bad and what SPECIFICALLY we can do to make them better.
Write about why we should be reading top historical novels by Jon Meacham, David Remnick. and George Packer and WHY!
Explain why Dems need to get involved in not only general elections but also primaries in city, county, state, AND federal elections!
STOP WITH THE TWEETS!
3
Words fail me.
5
I still see a clear connection between these utterances and empirical real outcomes. When he says such things his base responds to them in the manner that people have always responded to such things. The lies, fear, gaslighting, and dehumanization do for him what they have always done for the leaders who have resorted to such tactics. These tactics have worked for him. He has been rewarded for these utterances. People voted for him. At his rallies they go bananas. And this is all closely related to unjustified white racial resentment, ginned up white racial fear, and unmerited white racial entitlements and dominance. It's their country. Their president can do and say whatever the heck he wants to do or say. How dare we suggest otherwise? The rest of us should sit down and shut up, or go back.
2
Trump is to English as Motorboats are to Fish. Dangerous, Messy and Massacre Adjacent.
Seriously.
5
Brilliant column Thank you
3
Why does Trump need a thesaurus? Many of his most powerful words are carefully chosen. "Fake news," "enemy of the people" and now "human scum" are battled-tested and highly effective demagogic phrases employed for decades by some of the top totalitarians of all time. These are direct references to Hitler, Stalin and more recently Kim. Don't think for a moment he is not aware of this. And "lynching" has its own special place in the American lexicon of racism and is another dog whistle to his core supporters.
Trump's doing very, very well by these standards and it would be hard to improve on the language he uses to convey his meaning.
3
Mr. Bruni ... this piece is a perfect description of don the con's speech and written inadequacies while Nicolas Ortega's graphic is the perfect complement.
1
Trump went to the Joseph Goebbels academy of lying. Tell a lie, tell it enough and people will believe it is true. The bigger the lie the more they will accept it.
He speaks this simplistic language to communicate with his base and to engage their perceptions and fears.
He also needs to be examined for dangerous mental disorders, like sociopathy, and dementia.
3
Unfortunately, the people who should read this either won't or can't read it. And the people who do read it already know all about Trump's pre-K grasp of the English language. And Trump won't read it because the White House no longer carries the NYT. So....
6
Life is not perfect. How can anyone declare unequivocally that a phone call is perfect?
Trump's problem is a lack of respect for others. If he wants respect, then he must accept others as they are and give them as much respect as possible.
Instead he performs the role of a fool, the village idiot. I can't say he's ignorant; he just doesn't get it. He fails to learn.
He may have a net worth of billions of dollars but he is net worthless when it comes to character and what it really means to be alive and human.
3
The fact is that 50% of population has below average intelligence, or "low IQ" as the Electoral College/Trump University, Taj Mahal Gambling Casino (1 of 4 going bankrupt)as the president projects onto others. Also, low lifes, losers, over-rated,. know-nothings, losers, fake, failure, etc
The bottom 40% eat this stuff up. And nobody responds in kind, so they conclude "he, strong, they, weak". They do not read. Instead they watch Fox News at their town's saloon .with their friends, with the audio turned off, while watching the bleached blond hosts with their mini-dresses hiked up, way up. Then Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity show up and them like it is.
The White House has tapped into this crowd, as well as the evangelists who only read the bible and shoot animals, including the pregnant ones. Yep, that's about it.
3
Thank you Mr. Bruni for your beautifully phrased article. You had me laughing with tears, which is unique for me, as I usually react to articles about our fearless idiot in chief with anger and agitation.
2
It is classic over-credentialed under educated sub English,
caps and quotes and exclamation points all in a row. Content
is a by-product of a spewing voice all feverish to hear itself.
Therapy would be useless for Trump. He cannot tell the truth. Tony Soprano was a much better candidate for therapy and he still murdered on the side.
2
No offense to Frank Bruni, who writes some brilliant and insightful essays in the New York Times. However, an op-ed, as the "op" in "op-ed" implies, should offer an opinion. This piece does not so much present an opinion as it states the blindingly obvious.
2
"Believe me....Donald Trump's command of English is tremendous....very, very strong....so strong that a lot of people are saying what an incredibly stable genius I am....and these are great people....tremendous people, in fact, are saying that I have the best words...and the only people criticizing my third-grade vocabulary and 2nd-grade syntax are weak losers like the 'fake news' New York Times, a known enemy of the people - if you don't mind me quoting my dear friend Joseph Stalin, who by the way, was tremendously misunderstood and is somebody who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, sort of like Frederick Douglass....but the point is you can never be too greedy and that's why I ran for President, not only to give myself a giant tax cut, but also to pay off all my business debts in exchange for handing off the Middle East to Putin and helping to flush NATO and America's alliances down my personal toilet....so this has been an amazing Presidency....probably the most amazing Presidency in history....we've exploded the debt for suffering billionaires...we almost destroyed healthcare for 15 million....we're wrecking the environment for our children and grandchildren....the courts are rigged for corporations and religious fundamentalists....and the Republican Party and I have rejected the phony United States Constitution....this is an incredible amount of winning and I look forward to the end of the republic....thank you....thank you so much !"
18
There’s no equivocating, the man is a moron.
While I agree that letter writing requires more discipline, the release of Trump’s letter to Edorgan was further proof of his third grade mentality and command of vocabulary.
To think from this same office came the inspired words of Lincoln, Kennedy, and Obama is stark proof of how far we’ve spiraled downward with public discourse.
3
Look. On the tv!
Head butcher in the abattoir of the English language
Annihilator of metaphors
Splitter of infinitives
Able to speak in sentence fragments
Chef of the word salad of lies
It’s a poet. No
It’s a professor. No.
It’s the president!
Trump is a self-pitying, hate-filled bully. His speech reflects his base, whom he despises, yet depends on. He is constantly on the defensive, because he doesn't trust anyone. It must be a terrible way to live.
The president is an evil dictator that you need to stop speaking about, except in terms of how to remove him.
1
The point of this piece is what? One should write about his corrupt and disgusting core, his adherence to criminal activities, his attempts to destroy basic institutions of our democracy. His moronic utterances are just a reflection of his stupidity and may be dismissed as that. Writers at the NYT should be spending more time being direct and pointing out that this man needs to be impeached and removed in order to preserve the integrity of our government - the Washington Post tries to do that.
1
It's not just that he speaks in non sequiturs - he thinks in them too. Trump's 'word soup' speeches leave most of us speechless. His 'wall' in Colorado is either the product of geographic ignorance or flawed opinion that somehow the Colorado River empties into the Rio Grande alongside his 'wall' - which of course it doesn't.
Trump shows many if not all the symptoms of oral dyslexia including: "Difficulty reading, including reading aloud. Slow and labor-intensive reading and writing.
Problems spelling. Avoiding activities that involve reading.
Mispronouncing names or words, or problems retrieving words." (Source Mayo Clinic) This would explain 'Covfeve' - his frequent mis-pronunciations of printed words (as in a TV prompter) - his inability to absorb and digest briefing papers - his slowed speech when reading from prepared text.
None of this excuses his offensive behavior or lets him off-the-hook for gross incompetence and questionable ethics, but it does make sense when applied to his every utterance since he assumed office.
1
Frank I agree with you in part but I think that much of his language and twitter style speech patterns are clever and deliberate. They are only intended to rile and distract the media and to endear his base many of whom think and speak in similar patterns. How much media attention has been wasted on his use of the word "lynching" when that energy could be spent on the truly destructive things he is engaged in like his links to Russia, Syria and Korea or his environmentally destructive policies, his trade war and so forth. Why has so little attention been focused an his behind the curtain family dealings with foreign nations. Does anyone have a clue as to what Jared Kushner has been up to in the Middle East. What have Ivanka, Eric and Don Jr been preoccupying their time with while "serving" in the WH. What and why does he hold power and sway over Mitch McConnell and little Lindsey Graham. These are real concerns.
4
Perhaps the most disconcerting aspect of this whole "affair" is Republican support in Congress for a man who has such apparent difficulties in speech, temperament, decorum.
He is, unfortunately, not fitting to be President, and there should be something to that, regardless of whether you like this or that policy or not.
1
I am profoundly concerned about the substantive harm that Trump has inflicted on our country, but I must confess that his personal and particular foulness, as shown by his words, seems even more difficult to watch.
13
Exactly how I feel every time he opens his mouth. Thank you.
1
If Trump knew - or believed - what he lacked, would he be behaving in the manner he does day after day? Obviously, Trump suffers from no sense of inadequacy. How can a man think so, who claims to be a man of 'unmatched wisdom"?
Mr. Bruno, it's us, the American public, and Trump's Republicans, who need a course in patriotism and ethics. Mindlessly, it seems, we chant such salutary words in our anthem, as the land of the free and the brave, when we show not a trace of this quality in ourselves. Not presently, anyway.
We say, our society functions under the Rule of Law? What's then gone wrong that this man, Trump and his Roy Cohn at DOJ, show so little respect for the Rule of Law? We say, no one in our country is above the law. Why then Trump who seems to have profited all his life by breaking laws not standing in a court of law playing the defending himself?
Whatever happened to our widely acclaimed system of Checks and Balances? How come the Executive branch today seems to be getting away with openly defying Congressional subpoenas? I can't speak for others, but for sure, I can use a therapist to cleanse my head and heart of these old- fashioned notions that I seem to cling on to even in the Trumpian-Republican era.
1
Mr. Bruni has down pat, here, Trump's language, and I'll add tone for the later:
... "It becomes sloppier when he’s panicked, more visceral when he’s vulnerable, more wildly hyperbolic and wickedly imprecise when he’s making a counterfeit show of strength."
Vote the man out, and dispense with Pence.
7
Once I was in a car with a couple of people traveling through North Carolina and as we approached the South Carolina border we saw a sign for a Mexican restaurant that said, “Welcome to South of the Border.” One person asked, “Are we going to go through Mexico?” So Trump is not alone.
6
Trump wants to be impeached and that’s why he taunts those in opposition. I’m not sure of his objective and that increases my concern. Perhaps he thinks that he’ll not be convicted and thus be able to preen and scream witch-hunt. He knows how he sounds and he wants to sound brutal and to use one of his favorite words, nasty. My big fear is that the Democrats will find a way to lose in 2020.
6
‘Perfect’ will be cuffs on an orange jumpsuit.
7
This is not a new phenomenon: to wit, the 1964 Pulitzer winner for general non fiction: Hofstadter’s Anti-intellectualism in American Life.
Frank! Bravo! I can’t improve on the already praiseful comments. But thank you! You are helping to keep us sane through this unbelievably odious time! Watch your back, baby !!
6
I’m sure a good computer program could tally the breadth of his post-infantile vocabulary.
2
Trump is a classic Sociopath and that is considered a brain disorder. Does he have any true, childhood or school, friends? I believe his families behavior is more a sense of monetary loyalty. Trump Jr. lacks the Sociopathic signs of his father. He is immature for someone his age. Maybe a lack of human and social awareness. The Trump clan is certainly a case in human
psychology hopefully to be studied when some or all are institutionalized.
2
#45's language is not idiosyncratic. It is the language of Queens mafiosos and Irish bars there and the German-American version of "Heimat." This clown rarely attended classes at U. of Penn / Wharton, as we now know. He is the lowest version of "educated fool" ever to grace the public stage.
Good riddance and bad cess to him.
2
"Trump is petrified as Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff close in." So lawyer up and get them working on alternate facts. Meanwhile, arm waving, bile spewing, table pounding, name calling, sarcasm, lies, ...
2
“I know words. I have the best words.” Donald Trump
5
Forget Rudy. Trump needs the true defender of his mangled verbiage and ping-pong ball intellect... Sarah Palin.
The early "T" quote that made shivers up my back Was in relation to the "debates": I have all the best words.
No relation to reality.
No attempt to communicate.
Just "the best words". OMG!!!!
4
What a shame that Trump canceled the White House subscription to The New York Times. He's missing out on a prime example of "perfect" communication.
3
Congratulaciones, Frank , for always piercing that overly thin-skinned , oily , corrupt , grifting , narcisistic ,
Orange-stained , always wheeling dangerously towards total madness , the current ( though not for long ) occupant of the
White House .
When Strunk and White asserted that writing is the self escaping into the open, I’m sure they meant it aspirationally. But it’s true for Trump, too. Bruni is so right that Trump reveals everything about himself in his ugly, ignorant, fractured words—in tortured tweets or spoken rants. What’s worse, his words are what bonds him to his base.
5
I think Mr. Bruni underestimates the purpose of Trump's language methodology. No one would ever claim that he is a master of spoken or written word. However, since his plunge into populism his expression has been brought down to the level of a 5th grade bully. One talent he does have is that of a natural salesman and a conman. He understands his target audience and caters right to them.
Listen to his rallies. He sounds just like that unhinged HOA retired member. He is the twin of that drunk in the corner bar yelling at the TV. He is that weird uncle everyone tries to avoid at Thanksgiving. That taxi driver who solves all world problems with sweeping recommendations during a 10 minute ride. That awkward brother of your college friend who owns a dealership and knows exactly how to fix the Fed. That pious Evangelical mom who shares the kids car pooling duties and talks in hushed tones about those troublemaker black kids.
Sadly, there are enough people in the categories I just sketched to make up 30% of of our society. They love his language and crude jokes and his bluster. He is one of them. The other day I got on a plane and in front of me there sat a man in his 20's with a red ball cap turned backwards which in white letters proclaimed "Relax idiots, it's just a hat". That's his base.
Donald Trump has been not so much divisive as clarifying. If you ever stumbled on a WWF "wrestling" match and wondered "who watches that". Now you know.
9
Imagine being a foreign leader getting this gibberish through an interpreter.
Who knows what their takeaway must be.
At least with Guilliani it was noun, verb,9/11.
WithTrump it's like dumping the letters of a Scrabble box out before you start turning them face down.
1
The raging human id on display. All his insecurities, shortcomings, and pathologies laid bare.
2
"Trump doesn’t exclaim; he expectorates. You can feel the spittle several time zones away." one of the most accurate and beautifully written description of Trump-speak. Well done Frank.
6
Trump has a limited vocabulary because a) he never reads, and b) he's just not very bright.
6
He is on his way out.
Now, now let's move on and impeach Barr and Pence.
5
Thank you for your informative article Mr. Bruni. In an attempt to summarize your review of President Trump I have found a shorter, more concise explanation: “a stupid, annoying, or detestable person. Oh yes, that was from Merriam-Webster, the 2d of 2 definitions, first known use : 14th Century.
This column is actually perfect!
2
His disturbed speaking goes well beyond vocabulary and language. His thoughts and ideas are crude, ugly, and nasty before he even puts words to them.
1
Torture to our ears and sensibilities...
2
What else can you expect from a guy who names his Atlantic City casino after a mausoleum?
3
Say what you will (and very well) about Trump's use of language, he seems to have struck a chord in his followers that makes them forgive anything he does.
Perhaps we who grind our teeth at the unending stream of his tweets and tirades should try harder to better understand the hearts of the muted 30% that will follow him no matter what he says or does.
2
President Mumbles may not be able to spell, nor string a subject-verb-object sentence together, but he can destroy decades of work in the Middle East on a whim closely identified with Putin's wishes.
He can single handedly destroy our environmental safeguards and give the extraction industry carte blanche to drill in our national parks.
He can start a trade war with China and wreck the lives of countless American farmers and business owners.
He can't spell, but he can wreck vengeance on us for electing Obama simply because no one can stop him.
The maga crowd and the people getting wealthy on his watch understand him quite well.
3
How Trump speaks reveals exactly who he is, and that should frighten everyone. He can only think, and govern, in Twitter bites. That Republicans, and 40 percent of the American public, are completely fine with his words and actions just shows how far we've fallen as a country. If he isn't stopped he presents the most existential threat to everything this country was founded on.
2
Very insightful with some delightful sentences. I am not sure of the late William Safire’s political ideology, but this made me think of him and wonder what he would have made of Trump’s (mis)use of language.
1
This article is perfect for my seniors who are revising their college application essays. When I correct their diction in their essays sometimes they will say they looked the word up and it’s the same definition as the small word they had originally used. I respond it’s not small or elephantine, as one student recently said, that counts, its precision.
3
Since he has been in the White House I have tried to stop getting outraged by that man's daft language, for reasons that many commentators mention here: this not only doesn't matter to his supporters but in fact appeals to them, I would just seem to be indulging my own "elite" educated background etc etc.
But I am glad to see attention turn back to this, because first, it is getting worse (panic plus perhaps increasing debility), and second, it allows him to get away with so much that is criminal or immoral. When you speak the way he does you can't be held accountable. There is no point in pointed questions that will only receive the bluntest of answers. And he can say the most ridiculous or outrageous or offensive things and skate by because people say "that's just how he talks."
I long ago ceased watching clips of him because his voice and mannerisms make me gag. I now cannot even read quotations by him.
12
Trump Word Salad is a delicacy savored by his fawning supporters. He doesn't even know what truth is, just lives in the moment like a 4-year-old blurting out whatever expediency pops into his head. The WA. Post fact-checker has logged over 13,000 whoppers since he took office.
There may be more going on besides pure demagoguery. Viewing Trump interviews from 20 years ago we see an erudite individual using multi-syllable words in complex sentences. Now he speaks in odd, cryptic phrases, keeps repeating himself, and seems disconnected from reality.
Donald's father Fred had severe Alzheimer's, and one thing known about the disease is there's a genetic factor. I've read more than one opinion from psychiatric professionals that Trump shows signs of early onset.
2
"There’s being crude with language, there’s being loose with it, and then there’s being Trump, who uses words the way a toddler does marbles, grabbing the ones that are most bluntly colorful and tossing them into the air just because he can."
Blisteringly good writing, Mr. Bruni. Thank you for that!
5
I agree but only partly. Given that the Trump's goal for much of his communication is to keep his base happy and fed, it seems to me his word choice is often as spot-on as good poetry. Perhaps it's deliberate, or perhaps it's a lucky accident of his incompetence, like when your kid paints something that looks kinda like a Jackson Pollack. But it works.
1
Mr. Bruni - that is "perfect"! You have echoed my thoughts precisely.
3
If you listen to Trump interviews from the 1980's, he had a much larger vocabulary, not eloquent, but more adult. This is another sign of his mental decline.
4
A couple of nights a week I go over the the elementary school cafeteria in my small, rural community for an exercise class. I noticed they seem to be having a big campaign against bullying. The walls were papered with pledges signed by kids against bullying. The walls had displays against bullying. A nice effort. The sign out front states "Be Kind". It is beyond unfortunate that our current Chief Executive apparently did not get any direction as a child regarding bullying. He is the Bully in Chief. He is a poster child for what a bully does. What is disturbing is the parents of these youngster probably in a majority voted for Mr. Trump, living as I do in a heavily GOP area. Behavior they would not tolerate from their child ( well, at least one would hope this is the case), they cheer and celebrate. What I genuinely would like to know is Why? Why do people this this behavior is acceptable and funny? Do they think think name calling and swearing, and yes inciting violence is a trait they want their children to emulate? Do they think humiliation and degradation is a tactic they wish their children should employ? There were plenty of GOP candidates who stood for "conservative values" that the Party could have chosen. Instead they picked Trump. It's astounding and shows that they didn't want thoughtfulness and decency in the pursuit of their agenda-they wanted a bully.
1
I agree with the many commentators who say that Trump’s ungrammatical grammar and pathetic diction help him connect with his base. Of course, this was true, though to a lesser extent, with GW Bush and with Sarah Palin. When I first heard Palin speak, in a flurry of circular logic and repeated usage of the word “impact” as a verb, I thought it certain she’d be a hit with the right wing. And she was.
2
My favorite is, "they say that ..." joined with some outlandish statement. Self preservation. When it's proven false, well, "they" must have been wrong, but "I am perfect."
Trump fans, in case you missed Sunday school that day, only God is perfect.
I've come to realize and accept (almost) that underneath all the bluster is a very insecure poor little Richy Rich.
It's almost possible to feel sorry for the guy, except that he's The President of the United States.
3
I feel like the news media sometimes helps Trump in their efforts to help readers understand what he's saying. They clean up his mangled syntax in quotes or use his most intelligible soundbites that get to the essence of what he's trying to say. I especially notice this when watching PBS or reading more high-minded outlets.
If they'd present more of his gibberish, raw and unfiltered, perhaps it would better remind any fence-sitters out there what an uneducated and dangerous fool this guy is.
2
When Trump uses "perfect" to describe a conversation, he mean "perfect" as "I am being perfect in using the tricks Roy Cohn taught me and taught Mafia leaders to avoid being indicted. I say that there is no "quid pro quo" because I leave unstated the implicit agreement I am making with others."
1
In his use of language Trump is playing the intelligentsia against the far larger part of the population that despises them.
3
With any other President, his 12-year-old English would be his worst flaw. With Trump, it's far down the list.
1
What Trump lacks is more than a thesaurus and a therapist. He also lacks honor, integrity, and courage.
3
Trump knows money in the billions.
Words? Maybe he knows a few dozen.
3
Bruni says here that Trump should attend kindergarten "not just for stuff about maps but also for the lessons on reading comprehension and the vocabulary-building exercises."
Trump could learn a few other basic lessons: don't be a bully; share; play nice with others. Tell the truth. Don't be a liar. Don't touch other kids when they don't want to be touched. Don't yell. Use you words. Be kind."
As a society, we have a bigger problem than what Trump learned or didn't learn. Children are not stupid. We may TELL kindergarteners today that they should play nice, but they can see and hear: the adults with all the power aren't playing nice. They are liars, bullies, opportunists, selfish takers who get away with abusing those weaker and poorer. They get away with fraud, with self-dealing, with sexual assault, and they brag that they could get away with murder.
And they support and condone foreign leaders who get away with murder.
So the problem isn't really the lessons Trump never learned; it's the lessons he and his followers are teaching. Our children are watching and listening.
2
The response from his base is chilling. They love his inarticulate rage. It resonates with their rage. The responses are their calls for action, for a pogrom against liberals to kill all the traitors. Deemed outlandish and ridiculous by liberals. But given the depth of their anger and the arsenals they have amassed and the many mass shootings recently, why do so many people not take their threats seriously?.
I have never experienced such pure evil as during this administration; what they are doing in my name is disastrous in so many spheres; hard to believe.
Adept use of the English language in writing this. Read several phrases out loud to my wife because they were so elegantly phrased. “Donald Trump will be impeached in doggerel.” And “[Trump] uses words the way a toddler does marbles” will be timeless descriptions of the man. Thank you Mr. Bruni. I certainly hope for the sake of our civil society that he will be defeated in 2020.
2
English is not my first language, but either is his. He is just overwhelmingly ignorant.
It is not that he is senile, or maybe that his brain is not properly irrigated with all that fat from hamburgers building up in his blood vessels, nor his lack of empathy towards others. It is his overwhelming ignorance.
He is Richie Rich, poor little rich boy. His upbringing, with parents who did not teach values, the schools where he attended in body (maybe) but not in mind, his journey through life believing he is like nobody else that has walked in the surface of the earth. All that contributed to develop what he is: a sociopath. But that is not the worse. It is his overwhelming ignorance.
He is a wounded animal, enraged and frustrated, he is going down and he knows it, though he will never admit it. He blames others for his errors, he is a victim, he is confused. He is overwhelmingly ignorant.
He will end his presidency in shame, reviled and rejected, and yet will blame it on the democrats. He will never acknowledge his actions and the consequence of them, because he is overwhelmingly ignorant.
In his alternative reality with his alternative facts, he is the emperor with a new suit. Naked to the world, yet admired by those who today they see reflected on him their own ignorance. When they decide to open their eyes they will see the naked true, that he is overwhelmingly ignorant.
3
Besides being the U.S.'s very worst president, Trump is also its very, very least literate.
Not a beautiful thing, believe me.
4
Let me say upfront, I cringe and cry and rant about this president. I wake up in the morning wondering how this can be real. I go to bed and have Trump nightmares.
His language skills are so limited that when he thinks up a nasty name to call someone, he’s filled with glee. How clever he thinks he is. The name caller-in-chief has infected us all. We’ve become name callers too. ‘’Snowflake” Trump from Maureen Dowd today. It’s so tempting. The most powerful person in the world does it...so why can’t we?
Hopefully, Crazy Nancy and Shifty Schiff will take him down.
But I’m pleased to note that Frank Bruni doesn’t fall into that childish name calling trap.
So, thanks, Frank.
1
UNC Chapel Hill should take partial credit for this column as Mr. Bruni is an alumnus of this esteemed university.
3
Very prescient piece by Mr. Bruni, in light of the sad, chest thumping weirdness coming out of the Oval Room this morning.
... and thank you for that perfect little bit of therapy.
1
We ain't seen nuthin' yet....
1
That Trump speaks like an uneducated fool is no surprise. He speaks the local dialect of a two bit Queens Mobster , which is what he has always been. The real question is how did he get through his so-called education and graduate being such a poor student? Fordham Prep is a good school, so is the Harvard Business School. Did he graduate with a D - ? Perhaps this was Dads' first contribution to greasing the way for his uneducable son?
trump's bible, the one on which he swore an oath to uphold the Constitution with, is evidently on that same unreachable, dusty shelf as the dictionary and thesaurus.
3
I'm no fan of Trump, but I really don't like pieces like this. Those of us who think he is a psychopathic narcissist see nothing we haven't thought for ourselves. Those who like Trump just see elitists mocking Trump for what he stands for. In short, this kind of piece just serves to divide without providing real insight.
1
An editorial to be forever placed in the Library of Congress for future generations for it's accurate representation of
the pitiful fool that represents the country to the world
2
Anyone in a panic mode will inadvertently tell the truth.
Trump is a sociopath with a long history of lies and deceit.
He wanted to badly to be in the center of every news cycle, that his modus operandi is now public and that is disturbing to his narcissistic mind.
This may get uglier and more dangerous for all of us.
We essentially have a fat little mean 3rd grader as President. And his base is okay with that.
2
Nice job Mr. Bruni. Well said. But in a column about the use of words, you could have done better yourself. "Careered from one fantasy to another." Might you have mean t "careened?"
1
He needs to revert back to his childhood and have different parents. What kind of people were they to let their son bully and shame others, and now, ruin a nation? They were bullies. Bullies raise bullies. Just ask any teacher who had parent-teacher conferences.
2
Trump is expending so much energy in attempting to hide his psychopathy, he has none less to cover his incompetence.
Thank you Frank Bruni. Donald Trump's language is not only
ugly, his very being is ugly and evil. Margare,t Dummerston Vermont
Trump is a dangerous child speaking to other dangerous children. His fan base is comprised of bullies, the infra educated, the mean and violent and wealthy sociopaths. He doesn't need to speak in complete sentences. His electorate reads his mind.
1
"Give the president a thesaurus and a therapist, though not necessarily in that order."
Not to be discounted is the possibility that Donald Trump is showing signs of the Alzheimer's that afflicted his father.
https://www.theimproper.com/142684/donald-trumps-family-history-alzheimers-campaign-issue/
This piece was perfect. It was a perfect piece. I mean, Can you believe how perfect it was?
Suddenly, the two bucks a week I'm spending on this paper is Perfect, too.
Keep on Failing New York Times!
3
Super column; the NYT needs to put a "like" button on your editorials so that we can all simply agree!
1
Early in his presidency Trump gave an interview with The Economist. The editors of that magazine wisely presented the interview as a transcript and reading that transcript was deeply unsettling.
The simplistic answers to economic questions was expected, but not the wild veering from one topic to another within a single answer (literally from some economic point, to the gardener outside the window, then back to something else). It wasn't just stream of consciousness, but fragmented thoughts that poured out without the ability to finish any one of them or string them together in a coherent whole.
Reading the interview made it clear that, over and above his malignant narcissism, Trump is a deeply ill man who is mentally unfit for any position of responsibility, never mind being President of the United States.
It was terrifying.
527
Yes , but the boos will be interspersed with cheers tonight at Game 5, as per schedule.
Last night I had dinner with someone who turned out to be a Trump supporter (also believes the earth is flat, the moon landing was faked and of course vaccines cause autism). There was no way to break through that level of ignorance and this was from a person who outwardly appears normal.
I’m convinced Trump could have a stroke on live TV and as a consequence repeat the same sentence over and over for 5 minutes and his followers, and surely his press secretary, would think it was equivalent to the Gettysburg address.
Removing Trump from office is not going to solve the love of ignorance. This country is in bigly trouble.
14
It's interesting that the distinguished writer and historian, David McCullough, who has won two Pulitzer prizes, referred to Trump this morning as "grotesque". It's not just the abysmal use of the English language that separates Trump from normal Americans, it's the primitive, brutal feelings that he's trying to express that make him so dreadful.
Not only do his actions embarrass Americans, his inability to use the English language makes us all look like fools for electing him. With all due respect for Mr. Bruni, I have to say that the idea that Trump might use a thesaurus is risible. There is no person, no institution and no resource that can tell him what to do or say.
9
Frank... what can I say? Simply awesome! One of your best op-eds. BRAVO!
5
Presidents often have have libraries as repositories of their record. I await the opening of the Trump Presidential Library...not much space necessary.....
4
So poignant, so scathing. Thank you for articulating for us what on a daily basis gets reduced to gasps of disbelief. What is most terrifying, however, is not Trump's verbal ineptitude and his escalating mangling of the English language, but the fact that this "rhetoric" continues to WORK and to mesmerize millions of his supporters.
6
Trump's base thinks people who use good grammar and words of more than one syllable are elites. That's supposed to be an insult. In their view, education is for snobs and city folk, the people on both coasts. Those who speak with precision and love of language are "talking down" to them.
Santorum called President Obama a snob, meaning cheeky, for believing that every child should be educated. The base agrees with that. Trump does, his secretary of education does. Keep the country dumbed down. That's how you get a thing like trump into high office.
Neurasthenic trump, who can't speak without lying or making stuff up, can't quite remember certain words when he needs them to tell his fables. He anagrammed "origins" into "oranges". Swimming in all the amyloid in his incredible shrinking brain, lurks the ultimate superlative, and he latches onto it like a drowning man grasping plastic straws. Something is perfect if he says so, even if it makes no sense, and he's the greatest, always, ever and forever.
So, here's hoping that he will actually be the first, the very first president, since time began and stretching into all eternity in the entire universe and beyond, to be impeached, convicted, and removed from office.
Glorious silence. That would be perfect.
14
Exquisite piece. Thank you, Mr. Bruni.
3
Frank Sinatra's 1960s rendition of "Summer Wind" is indeed the very definition of "perfect". Whereas.., Individual 1's orchestrated synopsis, indeed an alleged synopsis, of his telephone conversation with President Z of Ukraine, is best compared to Tiny Tim's 1960s rendition of "Tiptoe Through The Tulips".
3
Listening, at last, to the flowing beautiful English words to praise the life of Rep Elijah Cummings last week, my hunger for such prose got even more deep. One by one, each speaker dug into the language of spirituality, intellectualism, and just plane beauty of sound. One again, even lying in repose, Elijah Cummings caused
The best of what our English language can give us.
Oh what a glorious sound all that was said harkened us back to
Thinking Great Thoughts and Dreaming Great Dreams once again.
Do we even dare to compare the street mob language of
Mr. Trump each and every hour from the White House?
5
Oh Frank perfect IS Frank Sinatra singing Summer Wind. It is so sad and sultry and beautiful all at the same time.
You've captured the horror that is having someone as crass and ignorant and unmoved by reality as Trump elected to office. We thought there were SO many books about Watergate to keep up with: wait til this administration gets examined throughly!
I am as sad, deflated and worried as I have ever been about my country's future. Our judiciary, our elections, our government processes - all in jeopardy.
3
The prose in this opinion column is poetic. It has got me drooling. Just reading it makes my subscription to NYT worth every penny. All the articles about Trump, expressing his Neanderthal ways, truthful as they may be, fail to hit the mark with me -until now. My college writing professor, who stressed on us to hone our skills of the English language no matter what profession we were choosing to follow, did not fully get my attention until now.
Your arrow hit the mark. Bullseye. I see Trump in a different light, and the lessons of long ago from a writing teacher make sense.
4
Perfect! Thanks Frank!
1
Some commenters here bring up very valid and astute points about Trump, such as the onset of dementia and learning disabilities in childhood.
However, I’d wager that it’s something much simpler: he is what used to be called a “bad seed.” His current wretched, sociopathic behavior is not something learned (or not learned) over time or the fault of mental collapse but because it is simply who he is. He is a horrible person, and everything else flows from that: his delight in cruelty, his treachery, his narcissism, his racism and his amorality.
The fact that so many people respond to this with cult-like fervor is frightening, and doesn’t bode well for the future of our country.
6
Trump is living in a Grade-B movie, where perpetrators “die like a dog” and “whimper like babies.” His mind works like a bad screenplay, relying heavily on cliché and eschewing eloquence and any meaningful detail. He can’t even read words other people have written for him without sounding like he’s reciting a ransom note. Elementary school English teachers should use Trump as a caveat in future curricula: “Do not, under any circumstances, emulate this man when you use the English language.”
1
Never thought I'd see a US president with speech problems worse than W. Both can read prepared text but their brains simply can't compose contiguous thoughts.
If he is ever charged and convicted, I hope he remains "sane" enough to serve time in a prison and not in a mental institution, or worse, free and wearing a chemical straitjacket.
2
At this morning’s press conference re the killing of al-Baghdadi DJT actually said “...they burst in, not like normal people who go knock, knock...” in describing the commandos’ action. “Knock, knock?” I think that pretty much says it all.
4
A masterpiece, Mr. Bruni.
Recent Trump comment, "ISIS leader died like a coward".
(He detonated a suicide vest to avoid capture and the humiliation of a trial). I may be channeling Bill Maher but the coward ducks military service by claiming disability due to "heel spurs"
(sidebar-"heel spurs" are calcifications seen in the plantar fascia on Xrays but have very little symptomatic significance).
IMHO - ISIS leader's suicide is not the act of a coward. Phony heel spur exemption is just that.
1
Trump's English is a word-salad bomb. Ask any translator. His incoherence, grammatical errors, made-up words, unfinished sentences, run-on sentences and general confusion make it impossible for translators, trained and skilled in concision, precision, word-choice and sentence structure to come up with anything other than gibberish à la Trump.
2
Trump’s IQ seems to equal his chronological age (too bad it doesn’t equal his physical weight; he’d be beyond genius). For someone who boasted of “using only the best words, folks,” he relies on a vocabulary of about 2,500 words, and recycles the same dribble over and over again. You won’t see him addressing the graduating seniors at Harvard or Georgetown; he’s more comfortable serving as a cult leader to his moronic followers at rallies, clad in red, toothless, mindless, and heartless. How many presidents have threatened to sue the schools they attended if they released their transcripts? Zero. It will shock no one to acknowledge that Trump is dumb as a rock; he seems almost proud of his profound ignorance. And his level of compassion matches his grasp of the Classics. It’s one thing having a president who who is heartless; it’s quite another to have one who is also mindless. It’s our loss, and his gain. Can’t we get him some tutoring?
Mr. Bruni is not running for elective office. All of the commentary about how this column would not play in Redville misses the point. It is entirely valid to point out the depth of psychological distress inherent and on display in the President's utterings, "the sign of a haunted mind".
Bruni values a well turned phrase - read his weekly newsletter for the examples he solicits from readers.
"You can feel the spittle several time zones away." I will be chuckling and recoiling from the image evoked by this phrase for a while.
3
Comedian Bill Maher was once sued by Donald J. Trump after Maher had implied in one of his routines that DJT’s form and substance included the genetics of a an orangutan in his immediate maternal lineage. There are really only 2 traits distinguishing Homo Sapiens from our antecedent simian heritage—the ability to walk easily on two feet and the skills necessary to communicate complex ideas using spoken and written language. Of the 2 our verbal abilities clearly outdistance all other talents in the characterization of what it means to be a human being. Mr. Bruni effectively communicates DJT’s complete and total failings at this crucial skill set. I don’t know what sickens me more, the mere fact of DJT’s being or his utter failing of basic human eloquence. He is unique in my experience at his prideful misuse of the English language. I am quite sure that nonverbal animals communicate more substance and meaning using grunts, growls, and gestures in the course of their living with other beings. To quote the just recently deceased Elijah Cummings, an undeniably great human being who lived his life working to advance and promote the welfare of others, “We’re better than that!” The expulsion of Donald J. Trump from our collective, conscious awareness cannot happen soon enough!
6
All our politicians are flawed. Sure Trump doesn't think there is anything wrong with him and would not benefit from therapy as he won't admit there is anything to fix. By the same token Hillary wrote a book entitled "what went wrong" ...what went wrong?? Hilary, you are what went wrong. Lets keep things balanced here.
Every word you wrote is so, but what is the point? The choir chuckles (including me) and the deplorables gather more evidence of media bias.
Watching you vent you spleen, to no useful end, is certainly more entertaining that watching Trump vent his but, frankly, a waste of ink.
Try to imagine Trump writing "Four score an seven years ago our fathers".
Language is important. It is a measure of a persons dept. Trump is a kiddie pool.
The University of Pennsylvania must be proud.
1
And, Frank Bruni, this is why we love the NYTimes! Another imaginative piece of writing! (I was going to say a 'great' piece of writing, but that would be...you know...)
1
"Language most shows the man, speak that I may see thee" Ben Johnson
2
I truly believe Trump has the onset of dementia. He shoots off in one direction after another, barely finishing one thought before changing the subject. Anyone with an iota of intelligence can see this. So what does that say about his base of supporters? They love the incoherence, the inane statements, the name calling.
He behaves like a fifth grader. He drudges up every nasty word he can to talk about his own party. He asks his little group of GOP senators to storm the hearing room like a pack of rabid dogs. I find it hard to believe that the republicans in this country support this. When you elect a criminal to be our president, you get a criminal in the White House.
5
SAD. DJM
Therapy will not work for Trump because he doesn't see himself as anything other than perfect; you can't get well if you don't think you're sick.
A thesaurus will not work for Trump because I am pretty sure he doesn't know what it is. If he does know what it is, he'd probably pick the wrong word from the list and make things worse.
Schiff isn't shifty; Nancy isn't crazy. Trump is clueless and he just doesn't know it.
1
Though George Will is a conservative whose views often clash with mine, my library includes several of his books because he is a master of English prose. He once wrote, “You can’t think what you can’t write,” an observation that illuminates the sorry language skills of our illiterate-in-chief.
1
Trump has dementia. Why so few people will say or acknowledge it is surprising to me. Trump is also a racist. History has shown us the enormous damage that a racist with power can do. For that reason and many others, Trump needs to be removed from the presidency.
6
@Scott Williams I tend to agree. Look up videos of DJT when he was much younger (easy to find and an example would be Oprah 1988). The difference is astounding.
2
His convoluted use of language and his limited vocabulary reveal the essential Trump. He is a deeply insecure, disturbed, and unfit con artist who bluffs his way through life with an angry disdain for the facts and the truth. The epithets he directs at his opponents are really only appropriate descriptions of himself. He is crooked, a bully, and an intellectually lazy coward! How he got elected and is supported by anyone is beyond me! But it tells us a lot about the delusions and moral turpitude of his supporters and the Republican Party.
3
I love this. I teach ESL in Spain, and am forever telling my students how bad Trump's English is. I point out that he seems capable of using only, big, important or very to modify almost everything. A big meeting, a very big meeting, an important meeting, a very important meeting. And when it's extra special, a very big important meeting.
2
I had to return the rather small, newest version of my television's remote control back for the older one that had a much larger MUTE button. I find it essential to immediately silence his incredibly annoying voice, which grates on me like hearing a cat in heat howl. Nothing he ever says is really worth hearing and trying to follow along with closed captioning can make your head spin. I love words, and the King's English. I never thought we'd have a King, and now we have one that can't speak a coherent sentence unless he's degrading or tearing down someone. He is deplorable. I'm exhausted.
12
All true. But none of it helps. It needs to stop, and I see little chance of that happening. I despair.
3
@Kirsty Agreed. I am tired of hating the hate being spread.
1
I feel as though I may be suffering from fatigue due to the almost three years anti-Trump news reporting/opining.
But, since the media does not accuse Mike Pence, he appears to be blameless. Even a successful impeachment of President Trump will not occur before next November's election and could merely result in an 11 year Pence presidency.
2
Just heard Trump today regarding the death of the ISIS leader another meandering inarticulate self aggrandizing ramble,
1
From the Washington Post July 15, 2019:
"Those who want to defeat Trump should read the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu. He said that a general should leave a route free when an enemy is surrounded. “Do not press a desperate foe too hard,” he wrote, knowing that a cornered person will fight to the death. The more people who feel cornered, the more people will disregard Trump’s statements and character to defend what they hold most dear. "
The idea of MAGA will not die with Trump's fatigued supporters. Hopefully they will soon embrace another less divisive exponent of the path to get there. If they exist.
4
actually, Esperanto is the first autocorrect option for esper.
2
So what, he’s the president of the United States and should not be making errors like that. His lack of attention to detail is a serious fault along with his coarseness and carelessness.
2
His speech wasn't always this way though was it? I looked back at some videos of him in the 80's and 90's being interviewed, and he is a much different speaker which begs the question of what is causing the devolving locution. Are we listening to a man who has downgraded into dementia? Or is it the Adderall he is suspected of taking to assist in hair growth? Whatever the reason, the mere thought that this man is in charge of not just the country, but the nuclear football is enough to keep anyone sleepless.
16
As we age, we must be vigilant to avoid becoming caricatures of ourselves. He’s not vigilant.
3
Excellent and funny ad nauseam column – but it was not meant to be read by Trump. I counted at least half a dozen words that he wouldn’t know their meaning. For sure.
But on a lighter side I pondered how historians will describe these four years of Trump. Can anyone choose a single word to describe it? I can’t.
7
@Efraín Ramírez -Torres . I would use "nightmare" to describe these almost-four years.
17
@Efraín Ramírez -Torres ~
Dystopian is one!
2
Yeah, I gotta go with “nightmare,” our long national, globally devastating, soul crushing nightmare.
2
You are making a mistake. When he uses fractured English, he is making perfect sense to his base. When he says, "we are doing it for three years," "we" means him and the base against the hordes of enemies, "it" means doing what we want: "Drive out them out of power and privilege." This is like an ad campaign. It does not spell out the full message but makes it evident what it wants to impart with a few words, phrases and picture. Think of the ad "Marlborough Man," perhaps the most ironing in the history of mass communication. He says nothing, yet his message of rugged individualism and "doing my own thing" is obvious.
7
What is truly sad is that Trump's character was patently obvious from the beginning. Before the 2016 campaign he was best known from his television show where his signature line was a simple, "You're fired." That line, to me, marked him as a simple, mean spirited man without feelings. The run up to the election proved the point. No one ought to be surprised now.
Yet there are enough shallow thinking voters in the US to have elected him. This is the saddest, and scary, part.
21
The repetitive language use, including extremely narrow content and an overemphasis on the use of a handful of adjectives and superlatives such as “very”, “special”, “perfect” seem to be part of an overall physiological decline. Compare his current thought and speaking patterns with interviews done with him 20 years ago. The loss of cognitive function is pronounced and shocking. While we might be correct in characterizing Trump’s behavior as “crazy” and “unhinged”, it threatens us all. As such, determining if there is a physiological component to this madness should be job one. If so, the 25th Amendment provides recourse.
16
@AR Whitehair
Amendment unlikely to be used although it looks like it is deserved. Unquestionably, he is deteriorating rapidly but no one will say it aloud.
1
Just wondering if 25th amendment can be used by 'acting' Cabinet members - since they are being used as temps. He would probably fire them all anyhow if it was leaked they were considering it.
Hooray. You got it just right. Perfect, I might add. Or not.
1
I really think that it is "Trump's fractured English"; it seems that he never finished Elementary School.
5
@Dr. Ricardo Garres Valdez He was too busy bullying the kids and teachers around him, and then he went home to careless - yet proud - bully parents.
1
As others have noted, what is appalling to you in his speech is precisely why he leads his base. As you note, his language communicates two things very clearly. He is not part of the 'deep state' elite. And that he is transparent and so honest, i.e. even if he lies, we all know what he is believing. Hilary? Obama? Warren? They use words that communicate the opposite, elite and deceptive (groomed might be a more acceptable term). They may offer more facts, but as people they are totally out of touch and untrustworthy.
2
@David Greenspan ~
All true what you write but one of the biggest ironies is that trump's rich cohort includes people like Carl Icahn who trample on the working class when they raid companies. I know Mr. Icahn and his ilk are now called corporate activists but the only thing they care about is their own bottom line.
trump's dishonesty in this feigned economic concern for his working class base is insidious and treacherous. But the less than well to do in his base are fooled by his phony populist rhetoric.
6
Donald J. Trump President of these United States of America, family man and father to four- make that five-offspring, husband to three wives, brother, businessman,Christian (?) is a man deeply and morally disturbed...and no one cares about him, loves him enough, to call for help. Impeachment? Tough love is the cure but no one has the power or the inclination.
4
As always, Trump is playing to his base (the same 25% who can't identify the 3 branches of government), who talk the way he does. Trump's discourse is at the same level as a bunch of blowhards debating world affairs in the local barbershop or bar, who insist Trump "tells it like it is," doesn't "sugarcoat," or speak in anomy-pamby diplomatic language.
10
Thanks for the Sinatra moment Frank.
9
Despite the volume of blatant evidence, liberals (I am one) just can’t seem to grasp the glaring fact that it’s a category mistake to judge Trump’s language as as intending to communicate factual content , to present informed analysis, or to present logically sound conclusions based on evidence-based premises. Trump’s language is the language of the carnival barker, the revival tent faith healer, the infomercial huckster. It’s political theater appealing to the lizard brain, and it clearly succeeds with tens of millions of voters. That he seems to actually believe much of his performance is evidence of a con man caught up in his own con.
12
And, you say a lot when you say it all precisely right. Thanks for the brilliant analysis of Trumposity.
5
I think his golf trips has cost the US between $2 billion and $5 billion. Trump is a trapped animal who will get worse before he his wrenched away from the Whitehouse. The US is still a young country so let us hope that the Congress will put a list of qualifications needed to be President of the United states which includes government service military service, no criminal convictions etc. To prevent another dangerous buffoon from entering office again.
12
You forgot to mention the “stable genius” claim. Even his staff uses:
“I worked with John Kelly, and he was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great president,” the press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement.
10
@Tom The groveling terminology his staff uses reminds me of a bad sci fi movie where people are afraid the dictator will hit them with a death ray if they say the wrong thing.
2
Now that Trump has cancelled his NYT and WaPo subscriptions, he won't have to skip over the big words he (and his core) wouldn't bother to look up (and learn) anyway.
What Frank Bruni fails to mention is that the very coarseness that is so unbefitting a POTUS is what keeps Trump's core supporters with him. They can't wait for non-Trumper's heads to spin either trying to parse his rhetoric or waiting for the next catastrophic policy announcement to drop.
5
Trump's mob doesn't even understand that "Make America Great Again" is revanchism, not conservatism.
3
Not only is the president sick, he's contagious. Consider the case of White House spokesperson Stephanie Grisham, who has made Sean Spicer look like David Gergen. Her latest salvo on behalf of her boss contends John Kelly "was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great president."
"Handle"? How about appreciate, understand, or fathom? True, she probably knew her boss likes to "handle" things himself, but I can't help but think Grisham wouldn't speak this way if she hadn't completed a college internship in the press office of Kim Jong-un.
13
Great piece Frank...I'm sure our great and powerful leader will eat up every word like a Big Mac...It is a bit unfair, though, that Stephanie Grisham will have to sit next to him for hours to interpret it, theasarus in hand....
4
@Tom Does any female want to sit next to Grabby Hands? No one can explain anything to him anyway because he knows it all.
Only I can do it. I know more than all the Generals. I am a stable genius. North Korea is no longer a nuclear threat. I have unmatched wisdom. I am the least prejudice person you know. It was a perfect phone call. It was a very special victory....In addition to be a vulgar bigot, Trump is very clearly a narcissist. Narcissism is recognized as a personality disorder characterized by pathological lying and delusions of grandeur. Never mind the weird connection with Russia , the obstruction of justice, or the extorsion of Ukraine for political gain. Time for the Senate to put their country first. Trump has a serious mental problem and needs to be removed.
15
Truly excellent copy and a keeper for the time capsule that chronicles Trump's deep and lasting fall into historical contempt and oblivion.
"...Trump is ignorant of government, of history, of science, of art, incapable of expressing or recognizing subtlety or nuance, destitute of all decency, and wielding a vocabulary of 77 words that is better called Jerkish than English."
Philip Roth
January 30, 2017
10
One of the worst things to me about Trump is that he cannot tell the difference between really good people and people who are corrupt.
Perhaps deep down he knows he can never be a decent human being himself so has to denigrate goodness ,intelligence and integrity wherever he sees it.
6
Trump has his base trained. When he mocks in his derisive tone, they boo, when he brags, they cheer. When he says a blatant lie, such as making fun of Bernie's white hair and saying, "You don't see ME with white hair", they sit in stunned, silent confusion for a few seconds before starting to cheer.
4
He is an evil man who has appointed evil people into positions of power in our country. Our Federal government has been wholesale taken over by people devoted to dismantling it and also making it very profitable for them and theirs (which includes trump). That is why they are in positions of power: for their personal benefit. And then there are the judges. Every single appointment by this horrid person must be annulled or invalidated due to impeachment based on the principle: the fruit of the poisonous tree. None of them rightly belong in their positions. Our next President will have a long and difficult job restoring our country.
5
I've heard that Trump does not read much at all. No wonder he has such a limited vocabulary! As he ages, his brain deteriorates. There aren't many words left in his brain. Or, his word-retrieval function has deteriorated immensely.
5
Frank Bruni might also have mentioned that English is Trump's first and, to my knowledge, only language, so you'd think he'd be better at it than he is.
It's sad that after an excellent education, he should emerge as such an ignoramus.
2
Feel better Frank? I hope so, because it has to be insanely frustrating as a journalist to find new and informative ways to analyze and write about the times in which we live. These days lack nuance, and there is nothing subtle about Trump.
Also, there is nothing new to be written about him. Trump reduces journalists to note takers who describe his deteriorating condition and symptoms. I don’t know about anyone else out there, but I grow weary of reading the Trump Derangement Syndrome columns and news.
But you have to keep writing these columns. You have to make sure that Trump’s moronic, malignant narcissism is recognized and accepted as fact by as many people as possible. All our lives may hinge on it, and it would be an ignoble end to the American experiment to die at the hands of such a foul person.
3
Content aside, I can't help but cringe when I hear DJT spew his word salad. I am acutely embarrassed to know that he represents us before the world, and that he has been placed into the White House by about half of our voters. Many of whom apparently still believe he is their non plus ultra, no matter the garbage that tumbles forth from his prevaricating mouth.
3
What a shame that we have a president who lacks both the attention span to read this article and the vocabulary to understand it.
7
Dear Frank B, this article was like eating Steak with foie on top at 12 am after perform stentorian Verdi opera. I want to eat your command of language and the art of expressing intent. " You can feel the spittle several time zones away.'
BRILLIANT.
5
Trump's use of English is the English of a poorly educated man. I wonder what pressures were made at the U. of Penn. to let him be graduated at all.
7
@n1789
The pressure of very large donations by Fred.
Wonderful column! So many sentences could be candidates for your newsletter. But scary. Appropriate for Halloween, I guess, since he's patently out of his gourd.
4
Whenever Trump or his defenders spew out their nonsense I think of Luke Skywalker to Kylo Ren:
"Amazing. Everything of what you just said was wrong."
3
Buttigieg speaks seven languages, Trump cannot speak one.
12
Frank, this column is perfect, or nearly so. It offers sharp focus on the anomaly of the Donald's failure at English and so many other things, despite his success in being elected.
Obviously he has some talents, but what are they?
The problem is that we have 35-40% of the voters listen to him and hear... what? They cheer that he wants to build a wall on the Colorado border. They swoon when he insults our institutions. They repeat his insults. The think he's helping the economy when our debt is about to hit 1$ trillion. They think we're going to be able to close our borders and become white (again???). They think he's supports their faith, when he hasn't set foot in a church nearly his whole life. They can't see that the jobs we're "creating" are not able to support families.
The Republican sycophants in the House and Senate have sold their self-respect and any integrity any of them had so they can get... what? A liar, a cheater, a failed businessman, a guy who can't hold the same thought more than 30 seconds and changes his mind depending on who the last person he spoke with. A so-called president who cancels treaties, abandons allies, denigrates everyone (sooner or later), has no concept of how the economy works.
I have no idea why anyone would support this guy and I look forward to seeing him leave and enjoy fighting lawsuits the rest of his life.
2
Rage and hate are what Trump spouts and projects, and both indeed seem driven by fear. But these emotions also attract his base. They identify with him as a man who is evidently a liar, an ignoramus, a cheat, and a scam artist, but who is a master of manipulation, of attack and abuse as permanent weapons in a war without quarter. As they see Trump, he defeated the eastern elite, the traditional press, his Republican adversaries, Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, the globalists, the defenders of open borders and refugees' rights, of environmental protection and the ACA. They still expect he will win, even in this battle now against Schiff and Pelosi, as he paints it. America's struggle to remain sane and literate may have been lost some time ago for almost 40% of voters.
3
Frank, you have a way with words. Trump has a wrong way.
1
Trump is like Gollum; totally consumed with him self. He may have once been Smeagol, somewhat aware of a bigger world, with friendship, summer days, and fishing, but now he can only see himself. All else is to be used to that end, sad.
1
Some future doctorate candidate will do a thesis on the mind of Trump by analyzing his tweets. His thesis will be rejected because he will conclude there is nothing there.
1
Aside from trying to parse Trump's speech is the horror of his thoughts, specifically that anyone who disagrees with him (or obeys the law, as in testifying before Congress) is treasonous, an enemy of the people. This is loaded language that divides us and is meant to do just that. We live in a country where we are allowed to question presidential authority and behavior. It's one of the checks and balances against dictatorship.
4
Actions speak louder than words. He is fulfilling his campaign promises. He will be re-elected.
2
@Olivia enjoying healthcare costs with lower premiums? Enjoying lower prescription costs?
31
@Olivia
Yes, but look at his actions. What has he done that is remotely positive?
35
@Olivia
Actions? Promises?
Pulling troops out then moving them around?
Cutting taxes and increasing the deficit?
Letting big industry pollute?
Separating families?
Yes, the economy, already surging under Obama, continued to grow, but it will cost in the future.
Trump cares about being president because he falsely assumes that will make him immune from the fed, state, local charges waiting for him. Oh, and he can hustle for his family.
He will not be re elected and may not even serve out his term. Unless the republicans sink even lower than they already have.
25
Mr. Trump is a performer, you go for the show, the enjoyment of it, the surprises. Now, you have to admit, 'Mark Esperanto' was an inspiration, you have to laugh--does Elizabeth Warren ever make you laugh, does she ever laugh? Quit complaining about Donald Trump, he's unique, people will be quoting him for centuries to come. He's energizing, in his own way perfectly truthful and sincere; he's one of us! Everybody is attracted and pays attention to him even when he doesn't make sense. He's like a great pianist on a good night, when he's really on a roll, the audience doesn't care if he plays the right notes--he's making music, he's really reaching out to them; they love it, who cares about the notes. By contrast, Democrats are grammar obsessed 'nattering nabobs of negativism', who wants that?
6
@Ronald B. Duke
Your observation that "he's one of us!" and that "they love it" are the heart of the hollowness inside seekers who, feeling left out of successes, sign up for quick fixes to their longings with the self-deceptions that they can't fully hide from themselves with rationalizations like your "he's unique." And, those offer the platform for the rest of your sophistries follow.
Although, while I am sort of amused that you chose the "nattering nabobs of negativism" quote from the disgraced, Nixon VP, Republican Spiro Agnew as your summary lne, it does coincide with the sort the searching by those wanting to appear to be well-read and showing the opposite. Offering disconnected, but hopefully seen as insightful, metaphors like "a great pianist on a good night" are more of the same.
86
@Max from Mass
Max, you're missing the point. Ronald is right and being snooty about his piano metaphor, which I thought was pretty good, won't change a thing. I'm a total cheeto-hater too, but I know when my rules don't apply to what I'm seeing.
2
@Ronald B. Duke It makes me sad that so many people look up to Trump. And as to he being "one of us" I don't think he would regard you as a peer unless you are one of the "rich guys" . He is a grifter - if he hadn't had a fortune given and built by his father you would pay no attention to him. His way of making a great deal is to renege on his part. That is why no American bank would touch him.
Surely people should see that what you need from a president is leadership and a desire to improve the lives of the citizens and the long term future of the country. Not an entertainer.
60
I scrolled through all the comments and no one seems to have mentioned the idea that Donald Trump may be one of many individuals with learnings difficulties. I was an educator working with young children for 37 years. It's interesting to me that nobody has yet imagined him as a child, even though his parents thought it right and proper to send him to military school. It is my belief that we are looking at an individual who has difficulty learning just about everything. I'd bet money he doesn't read literature or informational texts. And his lack of social skills? Hmm...That's something we hear over and over again as teachers. Red flag, there. I am not a fan, believe me, but we do need to consider that he may not be capable of the kinds of cognition we expect from most adults. This might also explain his defensiveness. People with cognitive differences know they are different. It is normal for them to defend themselves. We all do. The problem is that he's doing a job he doesn't understand and has no interest in undertanding. If one's ability to learn is challenging, how do we expect one to react?
314
@Marmylady I also think that his childhood is all over him in his desperate insecurity and need to be "perfect" - perhaps the signs of growing up with a father who may never have been satisfied? I'd be the last person to defend Trump in any way, but I think some of the more warped parts of his personality may be found in his childhood family dynamics.
57
@Marmylady
You make an excellent deduction. Someone should look into this.
13
@Marmylady
Trump wrote that before getting sent to military school, he punched a teacher whose intellect, Trump decided, was lacking. Trump also described himself as having not fundamentally changed since he was a child. Here’s a link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/09/us/politics/donald-trump-likens-his-schooling-to-military-service-in-book.html?searchResultPosition=1
I would not be surprised if Trump could have benefited from some interventions and special help from the beginning. But whatever the roots of his limitations, intellectually and socially, he is hopelessly unfit for the job.
Thanks for your work as an educator and for writing. Take care.
28
For those who support Trump because he speaks like the average, semi-literate Joe, the following excerpt from George Orwell's " Politics and the English Language," may be quite instructive:
"A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts."
Way back in the pre-Christian era, Confucius also argued that slovenly words were inimical to grasping the truth and to implementing action in accord with it.
To add one more reference to ancient wisdom on this point, the scholars who compiled the Vedic philosophy of India were so mindful of the virtue of using the right diction and the right pronunciation that they elevated speech( vac) into a female deity; the deity would obviously frown upon people who dishonored her by inaccurate talk.
Speaking correctly but without ostentation should be the goal of all people in all languages. There's nothing elitist about it.
2
Trump's mind may be be tortured—or twisted—and his language absurd and farcical, but it's also vulgar and dangerous. His use of name-calling, and constant hurling of insults and tirades has coarsened discourse in this country and emboldened his supporters to emulate his vocabulary and affect. Language has consequences.
8
My 9th grade students know not to speak nor write in the low diction, school-yard vernacular the President regularly uses in his tweets and his press interviews. If his paranoid, noxious and largely incoherent ramblings represent the best the US has to offer, then we are truly a nation and culture in decline.
4
And we, the taxpayers, have to pay for this: the cabinet, the justice dept., the weekends at his golf courses, the destruction of our climate, his millions of red ties, wars, the travesty of the health care system etc etc. We don't even have a say in how our money is spent. IRS are you listening?
1
Isn't it incredible that we have heard nothing about Trump's college years? Did someone write his papers? I believe he threatened to sue if his record was disclosed.
Would his father be subject to jail, like some parents today, with his tactics getting Donald into UPenn?
5
Before the next election, let's all challenge him to release his school transcripts. I suspect they would be quite revealing!
Well, we do know that he didn’t graduate with honors.
“25 cent” words and those who correctly use them have been mocked and scorned by the masses forever - while 2 bit slurs remain the lingua franca. Same for political thinker-leaders and their thoughts.
2
It's not either or. Either speaking in multisyllable words that confirm for many of Trump's base that they are being sneered at by coastal pointy-headed intellectuals. Or giving speeches that are full of vulgarities, non-sequiturs, insults and lies. Listen again to one of FDR's speeches, in which someone born into the monied elite was able to connect and show empathy with Americans from Appalachia and the midwest: "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself."
5
Everything is very black or white with Trump. There's no nuance or subtlety (to say the least). His speech reveal the lack of depth in his understanding and thought processes. Peopoe and countries and events are either "perfect," "excellent," "the best," or they're "terrible," "awful," "the worst." Most things in the world - especially domestic and foreign policy - require shades of grey. At this point in his life Trump has the vocabulary and temperament of an angry 4 year old.
Whether it's after one or (God forbid) 2 terms in office, eventually Trump will be gone. To borrow from George W. Bush, his presidency will be relegated to the "dustbin of history." Unfortunately, as many have said, his deplorable followers will still be here. We must vote out Republicans and crush their opposition in 2020.
5
And I read this Frank, and wonder why my wife is so angry at me for insulting people she knows for voting for Trump? People she says are important to her.
1
Well done, author! I’ve long-wished for an accurate description of how this awful President communicates.
Trump appears to be speaking in tongues – and only his supporters can understand him.
But as Halloween approaches, it's not far-fetched to see Trump as a powerful warlock who has risen out of the conflagration of the 2016 election on the fumes of hate and self-interest. He has cast a spell over vast swaths of the populace with his tortured English and thrown aside codes of conduct and traditions that have held for generations. He spews expletives and gibberish, grabs women with impunity, and breaths the fire of racial fear. Whatever he touches turns to chaos and disruption. Witchcraft indeed.
Perhaps it’s time to put a stake in the ground and build a large fire. (Politically speaking of course.)
1
Using a thesaurus for him would just be more word salad. He picks a word of the day and tries to jam it into every possible sentence. The words used are those of a bully who intentionally wants to 'hurt' people, and rile up his base.
It's a simple as that.
1
I'm ready for the English Teachers March- George Orwell's birthday is June 25.
1
Good one FB.
Trump's self promoting Nuremberg rallies have always be lurid affairs. (BTW the MSM didn't even show us the worst of it during the '16 campaign, as if protecting us all because 'He won't win anyway, so why bother)
Anyway, it's now clear his campaign rallies have devolved into an escape to a sick, distorted reality, a regular psychotic break acting as a safety valve, where he and his true believers gaze through the same dark mirror admiring each other, and giving consents and permissions.
What a monumental mistake putting this man at the pinnacle of world power.
He's wrought immense damage to our world and we will be decades repairing some of it, and much of it is not fixable, at least for a generation or so.
2016 was the firewall.
1
While I generally object to filling my quiet Sundays with the antics of Donald Trump, I do follow the news and certain columnists.
This is a treasure: "Trump seems to have placed his dictionary on the same unreachable shelf where his conscience gathers dust."
That and taking the oil.
2
"His torture of English is rooted in the torture of being Trump — with all those wants, all that need, all that vanity, all that spite. "
What great insight.
You know, we hear a lot about our collective fear that we are normalizing crude language, bullying, bigotry, use of juvenile and/or gang-style insulting nicknames for enemies followed by immediate demonization, and propaganda, including daily and near-constant outright lying, presented as actual reality.
And in truth, that has become normal, "real," and enjoyable for Trump's most fervent believers, but it is actually a comfort to me that the majority, including I suspect most Republicans (even many of the zealots), know that this is in no way normal or in any sense of the word our normal or our reality, slippery as those terms are at times.
No, it is clear, increasingly, that the US is fed up with this show we've been forced to watch. It has indeed generated much excitement in wildly different contexts, of course, energized everyone, and forced everyone to evaluate what matters most to us.
Unfortunately, a not insignificant percentage of the population has found that Donald Trump and all that he represents is what matters most to them, but for the majority of the country, I have the sense that Trump has become a very dark example of all that can go wrong in our country and in our government.
Again, I actually take comfort in that, even in my outrage.
One of Trump's most revealing and disturbing tropes is "like a dog." He uses it with abandon, as if it were the lowest state a human could reach. It is revealing of his extreme narcissism--while he sees other humans as characters to be manipulated in his personal drama, he sees other species as below all regard. And it is disturbing because a man who has never had a pet or enjoyed any fellow feeling with the natural world via contact with animals is incapable of empathy and love.
4
If editorials like this one can be written and published in the NYT, and that they can be appreciated for their creative accuracy - it makes you wonder what rules and procedures there are to slow down, so much, the process of formally dismissing Trump from his perch in the Oval Office.
1
@Robert McKee Because the language he uses is irrelevant. Someone needs to publish a list of common words we can no longer use because they offend someone.
Thanks for reminding me of Frank Sinatra singing "The Summer Wind." After reading your column, I listened to his version several times in a row. How beautifully rendered was the song! How simple and nostalgic were the English words! What a contrast to the "speechifying" of Trump. Oh, that summer wind.
4
The gross symptoms suggest two possible medical issues:
The increasing defects in grammar and articulation may indicate a neurological problem, accompanied and perhaps compounded by narcissistic decompensation.
It is both sad and very alarming to admit that the POTUS does not appear to be a well man. The matter now requires expert medical evaluation administered by a team broad and diverse enough to assure unquestioned credibility.
Political reality probably puts the burden of a successful intervention on the best minds in the GOP to achieve the most graceful resolution of the situation for the good of the patient and the nation.
They need to search for the likes of another Sen. Howard Baker, Jr. (R-TN) who led the path to bipartisan healing of the wounds of Watergate.
Perhaps they could recruit the services of former Sen Bob Corker (R-TN) who first acknowledged the current problem a while back and withdrew from politics in apparent frustration.
7
Loved this Frank. I laughed out loud to keep from weeping and becoming more depressed. Listening to President Obama speaking at Rep. Cummings funeral reminded all of us what a real president can and should sound like.
24
Thank you, Frank, for subjective clarity objective people can understand. (Maybe it's the other way around.)
5
We can remove the vulgarian Trump. But, what about the people who voted for him? He was created in their own image. Even false idols may have a following after being brought down. Democrats must plan ahead for the deep resentment of Trump supporters . They really can't afford to get that wrong.
14
@romac
The Trump supporters are deeply resentful about life itself. We spend far to much time worrying and thinking about people who are dying but dont want health care, people who hate minorities because they suffer from white superiority. What is the difference between them and the middle east, they just haven't reduced themselves to daily stoning's. They hate civilization as must as the people in the Middle East who want to turn the clocks back in time
Sick and tired of listening to the plight of white people and minorities who like being oppressed by these constant lies from a traitor to American democracy.
1
"Trump seems to have placed his dictionary on the same unreachable shelf where his conscience gathers dust." Great line. Mr. Bruni.
12
Most politicians lie at least a little. Some eloquently. Trump takes it to the extreme. And very non-eloquently.
He's very stream of consciousness. And he has none of the brilliance of James Joyce.
3
"You campaign in poetry, according to a popular saying, and govern in prose."
Oh, how I do love an elegant expression. It ennobles humanity, the aesthetic equivalent of white tie and gowns.
2
Frank, the call was “perfect” for one simple reason. Ukrainian President Zelensky, in his eagerness for the United States to pledge military assistance and diplomatic solidarity with his nation in the face of active Russian aggression and the violation of its sovereignty, used a device the world knows to be the key to unlocking Trump’s largesse. Fawning praise.
10
I remember how Rex Tillerson characterized Trump and the word he used wasn't Oxymoron.
7
Trump and his supporters also keep falsely claiming that the purpose of an impeachment is “to overturn an election.”
Wrong! An impeachment is about the unlawful deeds of an office holder. It is the civil service equivalent of what a court marshall is in the military.
12
It is rare to encounter a person with no redeamng features, just may be impossible but Trump has none. His language is viscious,infantile and would not be tolerated in most households including the Republicans in Congress. The flagrant, persistent disrespect we are shown is exhausting, shameful, embarrassing and depressing for words he speaks towards individuals are also directed at every citizen. We do not deserve to be subject to an unending sideshow rather than a functioning, intelligent government staffed with professionals, the enablers are just as guilty.
16
@rhdelp
They talk about the GOP worrying about getting reelected, who in their right mind would vote again for these pathetic old men who have no ability to do anything more than be a lapdog for a corrupt leader who cant even speak?
Watching Trump all these years in NYC, he never had the ability to communicate at all, he just wanted to be on the cover of the NYP or in the gossip columns.
Nothing has changed, he is still ignorant and proud of it
Mr tTprobably has/had fetal alcohol syndrome. Sometimes this is manifested in children as having an unusually large head, in relation to the size of the child, also as having quite "cute" facial features along with the inability to understand that you need to survive such as looking both ways when crossing a busy street - no whys in their vocabulary. Because he was attractive as a youngster and rich - all roads were open to him - he had handlers who did all his work - he does not understand what makes himself tick. The child-in-utero is deprived of normal brain development in crucial early pregnancy by alcohol consumed by the mother. Mr T can never understand the consequences of his actions - recall when he barely remembered that he had a child w his wife? Combine this genetic problem with his age and voila! He does not ask- what is going on?And never will - please accept and reject - only solution
2
DJT has not always spoken with such incoherence. A quick search on YouTube can bring up examples, at intervals spanning decades (1987 CNN, https://youtu.be/A8wJc7vHcTs, 1998 BBC, https://youtu.be/y4CqF4hjCGI, 2011, https://youtu.be/4gGIu9tj7IA) where he answers questions with precision and insight. Something is different now - I think cognitive decline has set in, which is within the nom given his age. But he still has the gift of emotional communication that appeals to a big slice of the population.
10
Trump is always playing to his base and they seem to thrive on his crass behavior. That speaks volumes about them. That being said, I must confess that whenever I see Trump on TV ranting, raving or lying about someone or something, I think the same things about him. So who am I to complain about his use of language?
When Trump got elected my first instinctual response concerned education. I thought his election was more a referendum on our education system than the flaws in our electoral code. What kind of schools do we have if the product is people who think America can be ‘made great again’. Surely, racism played a huge part in getting Trump elected; yet in the final analysis that racism came from their inability to comprehend Obama. We have a large minority of undereducated Americans and that needs attention, lest they be swayed by the next blowhard who will make these people feel great about themselves at the expense of shaming others, all while plucking their pockets.
5
"His torture of English is rooted in the torture of being Trump — with all those wants, all that need, all that vanity, all that spite. "
Frank Bruni, you have hit the peak. Your writing captures this moment like almost no one else. Perfect pitch. Keep it coming!
12
The narrow and unsophisticated language Trump uses is one of the greatest bonds he shares with his base. Donald Trump is a supposed billionaire, but is perceived by his fans as a Big-Mac-munching man of the people. Nixon, who spoke with a far larger vocabulary, but in a awkward manner, was also an unlikely hero to the disgruntled white working class. The bond with their base for Nixon and Trump is the authenticity of the hate and resentments (against the usual scapegoats) that telegraphs through.
Your column, appealing to our noble aspirations for excellence, or at least competence, reminds me of when President Nixon nominated G. Harrold Carswell
to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. In defense against charges that Carswell was "mediocre," U.S. Senator Roman Hruska, a Nebraska Republican, stated:
"Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos."
4
I remember President Obama's televised debate with the late John McCain. At the debate's conclusion, McCain kind of tailed Obama around the stage, muttered to himself, and pointedly refused to shake Pres. Obama's hand. I was amazed to see Donald Trump, during a televised debate with Hillary Clinton, repeatedly interrupted Clinton (when it was her turn) to say juvenile things. Several times, he claimed it was unfair that Clinton got more time to answer than he did. My jaw dropped, when, at the end of the debate, he tailed Clinton around the stage, mimicked her movements, and made faces, just like a bratty 4-year old. His answers to the questions were rarely on point and were extremely rambling. Then he won and I knew we were it for a awful predicament. (Add to that hiss 30 year legacy of unethical and suspect behavior, serial cheating, not paying vendors/workman, bigotry, and Trump U.
8
This is the best writing I have seen in the times in quite a while. Spot on in your insights about Trump too. Thank you for raising the bar
6
Many of his supporters love him because he sounds just like them: angry and uneducated. He doesn't make them feel lesser or ashamed—he is on their level. Bu there has been an anti-intellectual strain in this country for a long time. As Asimov said, some Americans feel that democracy means my ignorance counts as much as your knowledge.
4
I love how the comments from readers -- liberal readers quite often -- point the finger at some imaginary elite that the media and the Republicans have made up and blame that elite for the ignorance of Trump and his voters. Somehow, this "elite" is expected to condescend to Trump voters by understanding them and accepting their ignorance as innate. They can't help it but the elite can. Trump voters are every bit as eager to feel victimized as Trump himself. And they are not uniformly uneducated or incapable of turning the channel on their radio or TV. They choose Trump because he represents their world view.
2
I have long been convinced that Trump has dyslexia. (Remember the "airports," AKA ramparts?) He cannot read; in fact, he's probably functionally illiterate. I believe Trump faked it as a child/teen because his dad would have seen this as a sign of weakness worthy of punishment. So he never had any instruction or therapy to mitigate his reading weakness. Worse, because Trump has a natural lack of intelligence and curiosity, he didn't try to learn how to read or figure out a work-around--he just keeps on faking it and throws around whatever comes to mind on the spur of the moment.
4
It is telling that the Swedish teenager, Greta Thunberg has a better command of the English language than Trump. She’s far more effective with no spleen or venom, he could learn much from her. I doubt that he will.
6
Trump is going straight from immaturity to senility with nothing in between. Money can mask a lot of a person's flaws and inabilities. Trump has never succeeded in any business venture without his father's backing of money, political connections, and influence.
7
In "Politics and the English Language", George Orwell writes, "if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought".
So Trump's tortured English is the outward manifestation of his emotional fragility, his intellectual mediocrity, and his tortured thinking. Or, as Mr. Bruni puts it so incisively, "the torture of being Donald Trump.
And as the heat keeps rising, we can only expect ever more pained, panicked, and toxic language to stream out of the kitchen.
5
I am continually amazed that anyone listening to him speak for, say, five minutes, can possibly think that he's "smart" or even halfway normal. His speech patterns and habits display an ignorant and highly disturbed human being. What does that say about the people who applaud him?
7
I think this exact same thing every time I can bring myself to actually listen to him speak - which I admit is very rarely.
3
Trump is perfection personified. Who else but a perfect linquist would credit his defense secretary for creating the international constructed language Esperanto, usurped by that 19th Century pretender L. L. Zamenhof In 1887. Cofefes of the world unite!
4
Actions Must Have Consequences
After this horrible interval is over we must carefully look at who broke the law. Anyone who broke the law must go to jail. Otherwise, we will not be able to enforce the rule of law. Gerald Ford didn't think did Richard Nixon should go to jail. That was a horrible example to set. Barack Obama said we should look forward and not backward. Bush was a war criminal. He murdered almost a million people to steal oil. Obama didn't think you should go to jail.
This cannot continue. When the president breaks the law he has to go to jail or else our whole government system will break down.
For now, let's work on getting Trump out of office. But then let's not forget. "Actions Must Have Consequences."
8
Nothing new about any of this: it goes back all the way to the "Make America Great Again". My reaction on hearing that bit of blather was: what does THAT mean? Great how? Great for whom? Who's the winners? Or the losers? Never a clue: it's all connotation, no denotation. (Of course, we now know the answer about MAGA now: it's great for anyone in a position to get their agenda implemented, no Trump required; for the rest of us, not so much).
All this explains why MAGA has sold so well: every fool fills in the gaping blanks in their own way---and there are a lot of fools out there.
I would submit that since then, pretty much everything Trump has uttered has been a variation on this theme.
2
Trumps ignorance of the language is unforgivable and a sad commentary on our school system. The fact that it resonates with so many people is also depressing. What surprises me is that so many readers are able to diagnose dementia, make foreign policy decisions and draw conclusions based on said ignorance. He’s a boorish ,narcissistic dolt, but let’s not conflate oratory skills with policy. Obama was a great orator but his foreign policy blunders are epic. The Syrian red line, Iran, Iraq ,Israel ,China, Benghazi, the list is endless. The economy has undeniably improved greatly under Trumps watch. You can characterize or spin the argument anyway you like , but it’s a fact. He has brought to light the lack of journalistic integrity in the press. Everything is opinion not accurate news reporting. Has he been an unfairly targeted since his inauguration? The Russian hoax, really? A dialogue has two sides. Let’s have a conversation that’s open and not so dogmatic. I’m not prepared to diagnose dementia from my living room. Trump has had some victories in spite of himself. He might even be lucky to have surrounded himself with some talent. It would be nice to have some articulated sentences but let’s not be cruel.
The continual attempts to quantify Trump's perfidy are all well and good. He is not a man who anyone should trust on any level.
But it all gets back to basics.
He is a highly disturbed man who suffers from a malignant personality disorder. His need to lash out and rage uncontrollably at others is a symptom of that disease. When his fragile ego is threatened, he "acts out," just like a three year old with no impulse control. This is a thing that normal adults learn. Donald Trump never did.
And it will only get crazier as the impeachment pinchers tighten their grip...
5
I visited the remarkable Chartwell Booksellers store in midtown Manhattan this week...a bookstore dedicated to the writings of and about Winston Churchill. Reading Mr. Bruni’s column today is as depressing as Churchill’s use of the English language is inspiring.
2
Actually, the funniest Trump vocalization was 2 years ago, when he was reading right off the prompt and said (approximately) this:
"I can say that the United States of---
America has been working --
out a way to -- "
... and from there, it was all downhill.
@gemli
I read your trenchant assessment as Trump's hyperbole drones on in the background. Describing how things looked from the Situation Room, he sounds like a child on a field trip watching soldiers running down Al Bagdadi who died "like a dog." Now he's thanking the Russians...and acknowledging the Syrian Kurds. He's insisting he's been targeting the Isis leader since he came to office. Can you believe anything he says? The more he talks, the less meaning he transmits.
2
Thanks, Frank. I can't believe you left out our Supreme Leader's "great and unmatched wisdom". Now, there's a phrase to terrify anyone in the US with a brain.
4
“Can you believe we’ve been doing this for three years? Can you believe it? I’ve been a politician for three years. I can’t believe that.” Trust me, President Trump. Your incredulity is no match for mine.
How true and how more desperate that those "...three years..." have been as preident(?)...
3
"This wasn’t a speech; it was a puzzle." I'm going to be laughing about that all day.
Listening to Trump is challenging, but you really don't realize just how incredibly inane and shallow this person is until you actually read his words. I think we tend to auto-correct in our own minds when we listen to him. But when you read what he says you realize just how unintelligible his words are. What is even more disturbing to me over the past four years is that millions of people actually voted for this guy and continue to support him and show up at his MAGA rallies. That bunch in Dallas listened to this gibberish and grinned and clapped and cheered him on. THAT is what keeps me awake at night.
861
@Chi Gordy
Something that those who are deaf or hard of hearing will often do (at 66, many that I know fall into that category) is to smile and nod in the middle of the conversation, mimicking what others are doing. This helps them feel connected to the conversation and helps cover up their own deafness.
"That bunch in Dallas ... " most likely have no clue what Trump said and if they heard the words, what they meant (much like the rest of us), but they just smile and nod.
42
@Chi Gordy :DT speaks like the folks who built his buildings: bricklayers, carpenters, crane operators inter alios, folks who had not read Strunk &White, nor had Ph.D's from Yale University in English summa cum laude, or studied French lit. under Henri Peyre. Likewise, Teamster officials whom DT negotiated with, men like Anthony Gas Pipe Casso, Paul Vario, Anthony Tony Pro Provenzano, Hoffa's aspiring successor until he was sentenced to fed. prison on RICO charges, were in many cases, grammar school dropouts!What did any of the above care about niceties of the English language? Would DT attract tens of thousands to his rallies if he parsed words and sentences like CLARK CLIFFORD? U need to read more!DT speaks like his constituents!What's wrong with that?Even the late, great JIMMY BRESLIN, like ur MIKE ROYKO, spoke like working class folks,including often hoodlums, whom he interviewed for his articles. Asked once by an admiring journalist how he would like to be remembered, Breslin responded:"IT DON'T MATTER because I won't be here!"
8
@Chi Gordy
Oh, the Magabillies can hear, alright. The don't need any translation. Trump-speak is well understood by the "base".
27
It's bad enough and frankly quite pathetic he has to resort to the adolescent playground taunts he uses against his adversaries and this will only get more graphic and primitive as he continues to go off the rails. Aside from this and of more concern is the repeated very consistent way he uses language in his impromptu and extemporaneous commentary whether lecturing the press or in a meeting with world leaders - limited, very basic and void of any complexity or abstraction. It is the language of someone who is not terribly bright or able to express himself other than in a very inarticulate and basic way, not the presentation we would expect from a "stable genuis." Trump likes to use perfect and I'm sure he would readily apply this to who he is and everything he does, hardly the case indeed. My idea of "perfect" is when I see him depart the south lawn of the White House in that marine helicopter, off in the gloom he has instilled and never again to set foot in DC.
333
@Horseshoe Crab "My idea of "perfect" is when I see him depart the south lawn of the White House in that marine helicopter, off in the gloom he has instilled and never again to set foot in DC." Even more "perfect" would be to have him hauled off our property in a golf cart.
28
@Horseshoe Crab
What's really chilling is when his minions start "communicating" in the same words. Trump called Never-Trumpers "human scum." His press secretary has now escalated that to refer to all of us who don't support Trump as "human scum." This changes the mindless screaming of a toddler into a dehumanization of most of the people in the country. And we know with this group, the attacks only get more, not less intense.
28
I differ with Frank as to matter of degree: I think Trump’s incoherence is mostly tactical and not accidental. His incomplete thoughts, ambiguities and grammatical errors are intended to leave his options open....and that is consistent with the business practices. He was a master double talker at depositions in civil litigation and as a negotiator (although substantively, he was far from a brilliant developer and businessman)
Trump’s in-eloquence enables him to claim credit for whatever a future outcome may be. He is always fulfilling his promises because no one really knows what they are, even as his base is certain that they understand him. That is no accident, and is what he intends.
Mr. Bruni argues that Trump’s language is not crude, it is one of a kind. Then he goes about proving how crude Trump’s language is.
Trump’s language is not unique. If it were, he would be a poet of the streets. Mr. Trump talks like an uneducated tough. Countless others, in real life and on film, do the same. Mr. Bruni needs to get out.
Most politicians campaign in poetry in govern in prose, but Trump campaigned in invective and governed in lies. Mr. Bruni says Trump will be impeached in doggerel. But all I ask that he serves his sentence in silence.
460
@D Price "...serves his sentence in silence." That is funny. Thanks :)
23
@D Price If there is no cell service on St. Helena, hopefully he can serve his sentence there.
31
It's too bad that an essay on Donald Trump's use of language necessarily includes so many quotations of his inflammatory, abusive tweets and rally schtick; it serves to expand the reach of his propaganda.
60
It’s helpful for those like me who deliberately tune him out. It serves as a moderated reminder of how truly unstable and malicious this person is... along with some welcome wit to bring a chuckle as we all whistle past the graveyard of American democracy.
18
The morning after the '16 election I woke up with my entire back seized in an excruciating muscle spasm. It took two days of muscle relaxants and heat before I could resume light, easy movements. I had never experienced such a crippling situation and am grateful it was temporary, but my husband and I agreed it was a metaphor. The affliction that is The Chosen One not only wont resolve, but its severity has intensified and its damage is, I'm afraid, irreversible. He is not a well person, and paucity of language is just a tiny symptom.
3
As a retired but not retiring English teacher I have been fascinated, confused, amazed, and repulsed by Trump's language and his innate ability to render it "pretzeled" and left screaming for help.
But we know it works for a sizable lot of the population, for a variety of reasons that only a boatload of history books will untangle.
Meanwhile, break his usage into two camps: 1) the stupid, inept, and ripe for stand-up comedy, and 2) the inhumane, the indecent, amoral, vicious personal attacks, from the individual to the general. Both reveal his dangerous ineptness as a leader. But the latter...the latter displays what kind of person the country, indeed the world suffers as a role-model-in-chief.
We don't expect politicians to rise to a very high standard, but we expect them to possess an ounce of empathy and a pound of at least public decency. Trump's language gives us just a hint that he does not have the kind of internal wiring or experience to identify with another person or to refrain from expanding a voracious ego.
In short -- he is a modern Roman dictator in a dark blue suit, with the media at his command, using everything at his disposal to destroy anything in his path. Un-elect him in 2020, at the very least, and at least begin limiting his torturous command.
436
@SGK At least Roman dictators appreciated the value of rhetoric. Trump can't even spell "rhetoric."
26
@SGK
Reply to comment from SGK: your comment regarding Trump is one of the best I’ve read. There are two paragraphs that I’ve found especially meaningful. The one in which you write, “break his usage into two camps,” and the second, “we don’t expect politicians to rise to a very high standard,” offer a word picture of how best to view Trump.
I’ve had to reread many of the published statements attributed to Trump as I couldn’t believe an American president’s command of the English language could be so poor. I decided to see if any of Trump’s professors at Wharton had made comments regarding Trump’s intelligence, or lack there-of. Here’s what I found. The late professor William T. Kelley taught undergraduate and graduate courses in marketing at Wharton School of Business and Finance, University of Pennsylvania, for 31 years, had this to say regarding Trump: “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had.” For those interested in reading the info on what Professor Kelly said, here’s the web address:
https://www.alternet.org/2017/10/former-wharton-professor-trump-was-dumbest-gddam-student-i-ever-had/
20
Every time I hear Trump go on one of his rants, I am reminded of the absolutely brilliant skits from "The President Show" on Comedy Central. Like the one of Trump visiting kids in kindergarten.
https://youtu.be/Th5uVIhQ8VY
Oxymoronic is dedicating a well written column to Trump's tortured English. Why waste the ink? We are all perfectly aware the President is not fully fluent in any language. It's an interesting problem but perhaps Bruni's words are better spent elsewhere. Have you tried haiku?
Reality is Trump couldn't read this column without someone explaining all the multisyllabic words to him.
6
We know that Trump is borderline illiterate. One can feel his repressed desire to use his forefinger to help him when he reads from a teleprompter.
We know that Trump carries a suitcase full of psychological/emotional defects of character. When his administration is through more books will be written by psychologists than by historians and political scientists. (The same goes for many of his appointees including his current personal lawyer.)
It's not about Trump anymore; it's about the new American Fascist Party, formerly known as the Republican Party, that is aiding and abetting this man/child's destruction of American democracy.
11
It would behoove this president to request an English seminar with President Obama on proper usage of a language that he abuses every day with idiotic non-sequiturs, malapropisms and puzzling logic that must have his own staff going through a wringer.
This president is neither an orator nor a statesman but he could learn much from the man who preceded him in the Oval Office, that is, if he could get past the fact that he is black and has something that this president envies much more than he would ever admit, and that's class and character.
8
American voters seem to get kick out of electing Repubilcan presidents who can't speak english.... at least W was creative about it, unless I'm dis-misremembering this ... because human beings and fish can co-exist peacefully... don't ever mis-underestimate that,
Ronald Reagan: "We're trying to get unemployment to go up and I think we're going to succeed."
Yay!!!!!
3
You don't get it. Trump flaunts his clumsy linguistic impotence. He glories in it. It pleases his base, and reassures them. "So what, if a black man was elected president? That black man was educated, well-spoken and intelligent! WE can elect a stublebum ignoramus who is challenged in his ability to grasp abstractions--as long as he's white." This demonstrates who is boss. And the more inarticulate, clumsy, and dim Trump's rantings become, the better he makes the point.
2
"The howl of a trapped animal". How beautifully Mr. Bruni writes! May I say he is the Nadia Comaneci and Frank Sinatra of columnists?
3
That’s does it, Frank. You are definitely not invited to Trump’s next birthday party. And your golf date with POTUS this weekend is CANCELLED. So, there!
Trump does not know English, that is a given. It is a good thing he does not live in Germany and have to work with German irregular verbs. Trying to navigate most of those will make your brain explode.
Well said, Frank. I will just add this: the bottom line is that Trump is a profoundly ignorant and he's not smart, and he has an ugly soul to boot. But he is good entertainment, for me at least. I laughed my way through eight years of W, but in retrospect W now seems like Doctor Einstein.
Frank...Brilliant!!!
1
Bruni writes “Formally written letters follow rules and demand etiquette. For Twitter all you need is a keypad and a spleen.” So true!
I couldn’t help but be reminded of that poorly written letter Trump wrote to Turkish President Erdogan. It was threatening, condescending and inappropriately colloquial. What an embarrassment!
5
Trump's butchering of the English language ranks high on my list of his "crimes against humanity". By so loudly and proudly force feeding us his interminable, mumble-headed word salads, he's demeaned the use of (any) language and attendant basic grammar and made it perfectly acceptable to leave listeners dumbfounded or just plain numb. And to make it all worse, I fear that we could be exposed to years more of his ignorant, uneducated gibberish.
1
He makes no sense. His underlings make no sense. His followers have no brains. We are finished.
3
I have not laughed this hard in quite some time. As, with what we all endure on a daily basis – with this president's mind-numbing stupidity, arrogance and deceit – it is hard to find any humor in what has become a country teetering on the very edge of grave danger. Thank you for this brilliant piece that leaves me with the line I will surely not forget, "Your incredulity is no match for mine."
4
Last week I quipped here, "Dictionaries everywhere want their words back."
Hideous. Simply hideous. The moment he opens his mouth my skin crawls and I seize up waiting to hear the words "perfect" and "great" --his favorite verbal bully boys--trotted out again; poor things...constantly tortured into preposterous postures and forced to ape real meaning.
But it's the syntax that is truly jaw-dropping. Who can ever forget the "nuclear MIT uncle" rant?
"Look, having nuclear—my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart—you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I'm one of the smartest people anywhere in the world—it’s true!—but when you're a conservative Republican they try—oh, do they do a number—that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune—you know I have to give my like credentials all the time..."
A harder look at those "credentials" would have gone a long way toward preventing this crisis. An even harder look at the fact that this "speech" addressed the use of weapons of mass annihilation-- uttered by a man with no control over language and one who had coyly threatened to shoot fellow citizens on 5th Ave-- should have ended the run right then and there.
The devil is in the words.
5
One thing never fails - reading Trump’s words, rather than suffering through his utterance of them, clearly displays how fragmented and uncontrolled his thought processes really are. I’m reminded of my young nephew who has been diagnosed with ADHD. His brain constantly flies all over the place and can’t stay settled on a single train of thought for more than a few seconds. It’s no wonder Trump claims he never reads anything - with your mind in a constant uproar it’s virtually impossible to focus on more than one or two sentences before your attention is grabbed by something else and you completely forget what you just read. It’s pretty scary to think that’s the brain that is supposed to be leading the free world.
1
The lesson for Democrats is to speak as simply and emotionally as he does.
Big words, complex ideas and calculated politically correct phrasing is how to lose.
1
Those who voted for Trump know better. But they are invested in him, and they are not yet willing to let go. The best analogy I can think of is one of those "dogs" in do it yourself investors that they are reluctant to get rid of. Trump voters have invested their times and energies, they may even have donated regularly to his reelection campaign from 2017 on. So it is just difficult to admit that one is wrong when so much energies and financial resources have been invested, and until someone announced that those bad stocks in one's portfolio is about to be de-listed or declare bankruptcy, there will always be some who will hang on to the end.
3
To Hillary Clinton, pro-Trump Republicans are merely a "basket of deplorables." Not so bad. But consider how your fellow opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg described Republicans on Sept. 6th of this year:
"It sounds almost messianic: the Republican Party, that foul agglomeration of bigotry and avarice that has turned American politics into a dystopian farce, not just defeated but destroyed. "
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/opinion/trump-democrats-2020.html
Donald Trump is president of the United States, Ms. Goldberg writes opinions in a widely read newspaper. The standards that apply are very different. So, perhaps this is not a fair observation, but I make it anyway: when it comes to torturing language, there's blame due on both sides of the aisle.
Alex, no one on the Left has incited violence e, threatened civil war, or suggested his supporters beat up protesters and he would pay their legal fees. Your opinion is very biased. BTW I’m a grandmother, Christian and a Democrat, I don’t hate Trump I simply despise what he has done and his criminal behavior.
1
"Language most shows a man, speak that I may see thee." Ben Johnson
1
He knows Real Estate - that’s ALL he knows folks.
Thank you for your clear thought and wit.
The 40 percenters like this Trump individual's vulgar doggerel, and he knows it. In fact if he tried to sound halfways couth and well-read he likely wouldn't of even stumbled into the presidency.
Mainstream media shouldn't be giving him so much oxygen either. That's what he thrives on... ratings. Any kind of ratings will do... he'll use bad one to play the victim of "witch hunts", goods ones to play the "stable genius"... it all works.
Just ignore him he'll wither like a neglected houseplant.
4
If Donald Trump, as a toddler, had lost his marbles, he'd have taken some from the other kids and claimed they were his own. After all, he's entitled.
We used to mock Bush 43 for his abuse of the English language. How little we knew!
George Will once wrote, “You can’t think what you can’t write.” I think his words perfectly sum up trump’s sorry command of written and spoken English.
This is one of your best columns ever, Frank. Really.
I just have to offer the President, you know, our "stable genius" who knows "the best words," just two perfect words to add to a future tweet: "I resign." Feel free to use this anytime, Mr. President. Oh, that's tight, you don't actually read the NYT.
Hope springs eternal ...
2
Trump is the walking, squawking, misspelling id of tens of millions of Americans who are only more grownup than he is because they’d be fired if they misbehaved the way he does. They love that he gets away it, that’s he’s monetized it, that he’s ridden this tricycle of narcissism, vulgarity and ignorance right into the White House. They love that one of their own has supplanted the elegant, educated and cerebral black man whose ascendency offended their smug white ‘superiority.’ And the ceaseless sewage that spills from Trump’s mouth and fingers is the chyron that is constantly unspooling inside their dark souls.
5
You should be writing for the NYT! That paragraph is as elegantly put as anything I've read by any pundit! Thank you. Ive passed it on to my friends.
The use of the language is very intentional.
In my view, there are two types of voters for this man. The opportunistic ones like the Mar-a-Lago crowd where money is the only thing that matters and the religious fundamentalist groups that want to create a religious state.
The second, the groupies. They don’t really care if POTUS shots someone on 5th Avenue. They will find an excuse to defend it. Language is their link and their ecstasy. The more vulnerable POTUS is the more sloppy he is with language.
Interestingly, the groupies don’t get to sit at the same table at Mar-a-Lago.
1
Donny John should join the kindergartners in Colorado. Not just for remedial Geography but also so he can learn to play well with others and maybe get that bullying thing under control.
Early childhood education is so important on so many levels.
A “stable genius” would NOT rant and rave like our troubled prez does.
Trump and the English language are not on speaking terms.
5
This analysis has been missing.
It gets to the core of this man's persona.
He is primitive and infantile.
He has the vocabulary of an eleven year old and he
uses it like a school yard bully.
There is perhaps some kind of a frontal lobe problem also.
Not only garbled nonsense and non sequiturs,
but lack of inhibition.He comments on everything without thinking.
His language is more primitive than that of his political base.
It is the fact that near 85% of all Republicans still support this semi literate as president, our global spokesperson, that is terrifying.
3
The phrase, "A Monument to Stupidity,"often used in reference to an incompetent buffoon, describes our current president and his actions "perfectly."
When Trump mercifully fades from the scene, an actual such edifice should be constructed as a warning to future generations. Located on DC's city dump and built of shoddy materials by underpaid and unskilled laborers, inscriptions on its out-of-plumb interior walls would memorialize many of the stable genius's idiotic words and incoherent utterances misspelled of course.
When are we going to wake up from this nightmare and face the reality that the President of the United States is mentally ill?
2
Trump is a mean-spirited person who is, quite simply. not very smart. Faced with criticism the best he can come up with is the old "I'm rubber, you'r glue thing". When faced with criticisms of instability, he becomes a "stable genius". Ridiculous.
2
Thank you, Frank Bruni, for saying precisely what I felt but couldn't articulate. It's sad that under all that bluster, Trump is such a frightened and unhappy man. Maybe that's what he envies in Putin and Erdogan. That they seem genuinely to feel entitled to their power. They may be equally (more) dangerous but nobody thinks they are clowns.
Perfect column, Frank Bruni. Thank you.
Seems about right.
Trump is only honest in the sense that he lies so badly.
He's like a 2 year with crumbs on his face trying to will you into believing the dog broke the cookie jar.
It would actually be kind of cute, if he was still in diapers.
As POTUS, we can only hope the Secret Service has a contingency plan for psychiatric emergencies.... because when he finally loses it, it's gonna be ugly.
Abraham Lincoln he's not.
Touche'
This morning's presidential announcement about the killing of al-Baghdadi reinforces Mr. Bruni's point. I should feel more secure with the announcement of al Baghdadi's demise. Trump's performance only heightens my worry about his stewardship of the country.
His medieval sense of what should and should not be capitalized is always fun to witness and is one of the less harmful tics to his frightening personality.
If only That was the end Of it.
1
I get it Frank but the only thing I can think of when I read your piece is that this is exactly why the forever Trumpsters hate us. We call him a name they can't even pronounce -- oxymoronic. And then we take a ruler over his knuckles for his English-speaking skills, reminding them of how bad they did in school and why intellectuals are such snobs. (Not call you a snob.) Sure he speaks like an idiot but what no one every points out and we should all spend more time talking about is that Trump is not a good person. People don't like him for who he is at his core -- his essence. He's not a nice guy. No one wants to sit down and watch a ballgame with or have a beer with him. They like the fact that we can't stand him more than they like who he is.
317
@Jack Chielli you nailed it. Even those of us who just have a decent high school education and read a book every now and then, recognize the president has trouble putting together coherent sentences. I believe his use of words like 'perfect' describing a phone call or 'beautiful' to describe a border wall are signs of the dementia he is secretly battling. Your point that his supporters believe we are metaphorically crucifying him when we point out his verbal failings only serves to increase the intensity of their support. It's a support loop. The more obvious his issues with mental health are pointed out the stronger the support from his die hard fans.
52
@Jack Chielli I get it Jack, to use your phrase, but I don't think it's inappropriate to expect the President of the United States to be third-grade literate. If that offends people, maybe it should because they are undereducated as well. As soon as we get a normal President, if we ever do, we need to make an Education New Deal. It's past time, way past time.
86
@Jack Chielli No, trump is not a good person. But I would suggest that this is exactly why his base adores him: his rotten to the core essence. Anyone from the base would be more than happy to sit down and watch a ballgame with him. The trouble is I don't imagine trump would want to actually hob-knob with someone well, so base.
60
Face it, the most interesting thing Bruni wrote was that DJT may be the most honest President we have ever had. I could agree with that finding because DJT has no filter; whatever's on his little mind comes out with no pre-cognitive concern. Trump is all "whatever I did I can fix it, or hire some lawyer to".
If Trump were to fire every person he hired he would be doing us a favor.
2
What a beautifully coherent opinion regarding our president/clown, whose antics are so infuriating as to typically leave one speechless or incoherent.
2
He speaks in vague absolutes from the bottomless void of his personality.
1
Don't forget Trump's mocking of Abraham Lincoln. He brought up Lincoln being presidential, then Trump imitated a robot. Followed that with "Lincoln in his hat. The hat. How 'bout that hat?"
What the devil did that mean and what kind of American mocks Abraham Lincoln?
4
What kind? How about the kind of man who has no respect for his country, it’s people, it’s history, it’s form of government, it’s system of jurisprudence or it’s environment. I have struggled to find one positive thing about the US that Trump actually respects, and I’ve failed. The only things about this country he seems to appreciate are the things the majority of us would like to forget and never repeat.
As the English used to say "He has got no class".
1
If there were a written and oral exam to be President, he would never have passed. I cannot think of a more inept person to "occupy" the Office of the President of the United States. Horrifying.
6
This is a piece that needs to be anthologized for future readers!!
2
Frank Bruni writes:
"Trump is as inept at English as he is at governing. He’s oxymoronic: a nativist who can’t really speak his native tongue."
This reminds me of an imaginary dialog between then-candidate Barack Obama and the fictional former President Jed Bartlet, written by Aaron Sorkin in response to a request by NYT columnist Maureen Dowd.
"BARTLET — Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. _The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it._" [Emphasis added by A. Reader.]
At last, in Trump, that faction of the electorate got the president they always wanted: an illiterate who could be the poster man-child for the English-only movement.
(For the complete Sorkin piece, which is interesting, amusing, surprisingly pertinent, and has value beyond nostalgia, go here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/opinion/21dowd-sorkin.html
)
3
Trump has contempt of everything or everyone that is not HE, including English language, any language.
"Summer Wind"?!? Oh, Lord. Try this instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkwdkUXQ1yo. *That's* perfection (especially with Nelson Riddle's unsurpassable arrangement).
In quoting perfection you cited Frank Sinatra. Have you ever heard his speech in Australia? He said " "The broads who work in the press are the hookers of the press. I might give them a buck-and-half, I'm not sure," Sinatra was just like Trump is some ways.
Perhaps you should done some thinking before writing this column because people who vote for Trump feel the same way - Sinatra sings well so who cares what he says about feminism. Economy is good so who cares what Trump says.
2
Thesaurus, Therapy and maybe, for an interview with Dr. Phil McGraw.
I don’t like Trump. I don’t like his rants. However, I think what you’ve written here is also a rant. My apologies upfront, but I don’t like this opinion piece. Please read Ms Dowd’s piece as how to complain and actually say something.
If you have no dignity, you can have no shame. Trump is without both.
1
As an elementary school teacher, I had a list of imprecise words posted that the writers should avoid and replace with more vivid words. Much of Trump’s vocabulary was on that list.
1
What I find frightening is this is his appeal. I fear that once he's gone, the republican replacement will be just as bad. I'm remembering Sarah Palin, and had thought she was just a bad episode.
4
"Perfect" is this column, as so often when Frank Bruni writes about language.
I subscribed to the NYT to be able to read his columns. He never disappoints.
6
There's a high correlation between coarse people and coarse language. For such individuals the shock value of their expressions consistently "trumps" the more conventional role of communicating meaningful and useful concepts. The role of discourse for these types is the verbal equivalent of the bull whip: diminish, dominate, control, and exploit. It really doesn't rise all that much above the level of chest-thumping and primitive grunts.
The fact that grown men (the Republican political cohort) defend this disgraceful behavior in their national leadership is massive proof that gender and whiteness play no role in establishing the intelligence of a social formation. In fact, it may just prove... the exact opposite.
3
Eloquent HE of the Deal, is not.
Grammatically correct, The Chosen One of Personal Unaccountability, is not.
AND YET, somehow...
A minority, in a democracy of one person, one vote, successfully enabled him to BE the Prez.
To BEcome, HE of foot-spurs, The Commander-in-Chief; betraying Allies’ lives and limbs.
HIS minions, of ordinary folk, temporarily abandon their individual-Identities, mantrafying...
“they” know what HE means, in HIS inherent meanness, even as “they” choose to be blind.
Deaf, to experienced existential pains. Bodily. Psyche. Soul.
Indifferent to what demands our attention.
SILENT in toxic complacency, and even complicity, for what should not BE.
BEyond language. BEyond diagnoses. BEyond impotent outrage at HIS outrageousness.
Enabled by each of US, in so many ways, which continue to “feed”-anchor our WE-THEY culture!
A thesaurus? To effectively correct and combat infectious, violating EVIL and its semantic surrealism ?
A therapist? To transmute violating, daily, ummenschlichkeit into menschlichkeit’s civilities,
compassion,mutual trust,mutual respect, caringness, mutual help and equitable wellbeing for ALL?
Words, correctly spelled, grammatically proper, clear in meaning, voiced-void-of-misunderstanding,
won’t counter the planned as well as random implications and outcomes of enabled violating, daily, of created, selected and targeted disempowered, marginalized, excluded, discriminated against “the other(s)!”
2
He is unhinged and extremely dangerous, we MUST REMOVE HIM!
3
trump has never had any sense of the real world: for the victims of a devastating hurricane he throws paper towels.
So what could the word lynching mean to him? Vaguely, he sees a scene from a Hollywood movie. He doesn’t see or hear the inhumanity. It’s a movie, it’s tv, it’s his reality.
Nazis; what’s that to him. The same. Black and white movies, his copy of hitler’s speeches. “there are fine people on both sides.”
His fantasies escape his brain through his mouth, and we get a glimpse of his ignorance almost everyday.
His core supporters don’t hear or see his ignorance. They live in the same fantasy world.
4
One of the best Bruni articles, maybe ever.
2
All my long life I have loved and cherished the English language. It’s the only one with which I have anything like fluency.
It’s not an easy language to learn for native-born Americans; foreigners have told me that they struggled mightily with it. The English language’s essential Germanic skeleton (“wir” to “we,” e.g.) can be a slide with queer turnings. My African-American ancestors pointedly—and often with astonishing asperity—demanded that we learn and study the language because, without it, they scolded us frightened and uncomprehending impressionables, what kind of lives could we expect to live?
I took a B.A. in English Literature at a HBCU in 1970. The beauties and subtleties and surprises and unexpected turns never cease to give me amazement and pleasure. I personally think that Tolkien is the tongue’s most exquisite interpreter; it’s just my opinion. Which brings me to the president.
His election to the presidency is an embarrassing indictment of our stature as a nation of scholars and thinkers. From the exquisite elegance of Barack Obama to the fumbling-in-the-dark, woefully inadequate “usage” that he mangles with every utterance of his, we lovers of the purity of language are reduced to wincing as if we have suffered a thousand paper cuts. He rarely makes sense of anything that he says. His “speeches,” obviously written by someone above his grade school level—but not by much—stink of the schoolyard and the treehouse in the back yard.
I’m no elitist, either.
11
His language seems consistent with those displaying his malignant narcissistic psychopathological tendencies. The fact that it resonates with so many people is the bellwether of a broken culture.
5
This article is so elitist. Vocabulary, schmabulary - who cares? I'm joking, of course. The saddest thing is that it's the President of the United States who mangles the English language. Maybe we should require by law that presidential candidates must pass a civil service exam.
3
At this point, I’d settle for a simple IQ test.
Frank, stop giving racoons a bad name. The racoon screeching keeps us humans away while they do their mischief. trump's rants, raves,doggerel excites his cadre of deplorables.
One serves a worthwhile purpose while the other is just deplorable.(HRC had it right)
3
Excellent, Frank!!!
1
When you have nothing worthwhile to say, it doesn’t matter how you try to communicate nothing. In fact, it just adds to the worthless “quality” of the content of the “message”.
1
Mr. Bruni your description of Trumps butchering of the queen's English was absolutely elegant. Thank you
2
Donald Trump may have "written" more books than he has read cover-to-cover in his adult life. This helps explain the unfathomable ignorance, and the ineptitude with written and spoken English afflicting this miserable little man.
2
I have to believe that many of his followers speak (and likely think) the same way he does. Forget literacy, good grammar and syntax, a sophisticated vocabulary, and any rhetorical skills. They represent the lowest common denominator class of U.S. citizens. Proud of their dumbness because they really do believe that they are the “real” Americans. The rest of us are just foreigners.
3
A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. spotted a man in a boat below.
She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The man consulted his portable GPS. " You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude."
She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be an Democrat."
"I am,"replied the man. "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost.
The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Republican."
"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"
"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault."
13
@Ben Luk : An amusing and apt story. I was hoping there was a joke in the given location. It is just outside Mertzon, Texas. You should have picked Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.
It isn’t just his English that is tortured, it’s his soul.
5
@Mary W
Does he have one? Or does he just have an ego instead?
Don't you all remember Sara Palin (another incomprehensible babbler)? I think she may have been Cadet Bone-Spur's English teacher at some point.
3
Wow. That is some of your best work, Mr. Bruni. Thanks for being (unlike the troglodyte in the White House) a master of the English language. Wonderful!
3
trump is what you get when people like you advocate for an honorable platform at our best schools for the racism of the odious Charles Murray. you can't demand white privilege in one forum and not expect to see it in others.
Rule one in propaganda. Say a lie over and over and over again, as loudly as possible, and have the media echo it ( faux fox ) some people are going to believe its the truth. Bad spelling , usage, no one really cares...
3
Trump never denied his bedtime reading was a book of Hitler's speeches, but he makes Hitler seem both couth and well-spoken in comparison. Indeed, he pierces the veil of GOP-doublespeak to reveal its (and his) true ugliness.
2
Surprised that you didn’t reference, Mr. Bruni, our Fake President’s recent third-grade level, incoherent, nonsensical “letter” to Turkey’s Erdogan( that more appropriately Trump should have penned with a crayon) that will go down in the annals of governmental correspondence as the most embarrassing missive ever sent to a foreign ruler by an American Chief Executive. The Turkish President should have kept it and not summarily tossed it into the wastebasket, as reported. Someday it will be worth a small fortune at auction.
343
@John Grillo
If there is a presidential library for Trump, what will it contain? A book of speeches by Hitler? A list by Politico of his many lies? A love letter from Kim Jung Un? Trump’s 2nd grade level letter to Erdogan? It will all fit in a little red wagon. How appropriate for Trump.
21
He also needs a neurologist. Trump's vocabulary, never better than yours probably was in second grade, has shrunk noticeably while in office. His overuse of 'special' is an example.
Trump has increasing problems with articulation, coordination, impulse control and balance. From his two-fisted water bottle technique to the serpentine path he takes across a few yards of lawn to Marine One, there is something definitely wrong with him. You can track it on C-Span videos: in transitions, especially, he walks offstage early, forgets who he's talking to or the subject at hand, shuffles oddly and leans precipitously towards the podium. Sometimes when he signs bills his EKG signature shows a major deterioration. Then he rallies, only to decompensate another day.
Go on YouTube and look at a video or two of him in his 40's and 50's. You'll see the deterioration.
His more articulate or complex Tweets are thought to be written by staffers.
I believe he is worse than the moron Tillerson called him. I think he's losing it with some kind of organic decay.
661
@Bohemian Sarah
Not unlike Joe Biden. If Joe wins the Democratic primary the presidential debates will be a farce. Warren, Sanders, Harris, and Beto will not be much better. Gabbard or Yang would humiliate Trump in a debate.
5
@Bohemian Sarah
Organic decay......Right...Someone should save him from himself.
The Republican Senate is a schoolyard filled with
cowering puppets........
And maybe for them it is better for them to keep the light on his crimes.......so their side deals stay hidden.
13
@Bohemian Sarah
You are right. This is a body in decay. Few people dasre to say it aloud.
22
"Open mouth, insert foot," for me, describes Trump, "perfectly." It's blatantly obvious he doesn't have a clue and doesn't care that he doesn't have a clue. Trump's language is devoid of any thinking what-so-ever. According to Hannah Arendt, "Evil comes from a failure to think."
9
As long as we’re discussing grammar and vocabulary, Frank, may I compliment you on your correct use of “careered” instead of “careened”? The word caught my eye as I was reading your column, and I wondered if you should have used careened instead. So I looked it up and you were quite right. I’d never thought to distinguish the two before. Thanks.
I do hope somehow the US will manage to careen back onto the path of democracy and sanity soon.
6
Putting aside the content and ideology behind the words, which are disgusting in themselves, his choice of words hurts the ears. He's a poor excuse for a human being.
12
I'm reading this as the president is on TV taking journalists' questions about the mission that took down Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. After a while I had to mute the sound. The combination of his boasting and mangled, garbled syntax was just too much on a Sunday morning.
10
There are birds that know more words than Trump.
3
He's never secure. The latest groveling compliment must be confirmed by witnesses, which must be reaffirmed by other witnesses, thus spiralling into an absurdum ad nauseum on the White House lawn.
3
How about when he reduces everything to "very bad" or "happy": "We're happy; the Kurds are happy; the Turks are happy". You are right. This is not a person who has a command of English. Ironical, because it is the only language he wants to hear spoken in the USA.
6
"Summer Wind," yes, and also "Witchcraft."
But to say Our President needs a therapist is the wrong tack. He does need his head examined, but with PET scanners, not inkblots. There's something medically wrong with him.
5
Frank, this column is perfect, or nearly so. It offers sharp focus to the anomaly of the Donald's failure at English and so many other things despite his success in being elected. Obviously he has some talents, but what are they?
But at least we don’t have a woman president.
Gasp, her emails!
11
Trumps English is not only tortured; it is torturing to all of us who care to read or listen to what he says. However, am sure he thinks it is perfect, just like his "quid pro quo" phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
2
I cringe each time I hear him speak. No, I correct that. I cringe each time I know I will hear him speak. He is as careless with his language as he was with his money and is with ours. Beyond the grammar is the choice of words. I know parents now who don't want their children near a TV when they are aware of him speaking. Knowing the boundaries that he has crossed in the past few weeks, I fear what will fall out of his filthy mouth next.
If one of the roles of the president of the United States is to appeal to our better angels, he has done just the opposite. And I, for one, will not float in the gutter with him.
3
What about the lingo from Ms Gush'em, Tump's propaganda minister: 'Kelly was totally unprepared to handle the genius of our great president!" That has to have been dictated to her by Dear Fearless Sublime Stable Leader.
10
Not only is the man incapable of stringing together a coherent sentence; his logorrhea is contagious.
I make my living with words, yet I'm regularly reduced to unprintable expletives every time I see him or hear that whining, sneering voice... oh, I could go on, but then I'm just repeating myself.
See what I mean? Contagious.
7
"It becomes sloppier when he’s panicked, more visceral when he’s vulnerable, more wildly hyperbolic and wickedly imprecise when he’s making a counterfeit show of strength."
The man has been snorting drugs since the 80's. Very obvious from perpetual sniffling during public appearances since the 2016 debate performance. Drugs make him redder, sloppier, and "more visceral".
This old, ex-bartender knows what he is seeing when he sees it.
6
When 35 percent of America is in need of therapy, what hope is there for the country?
3
Great job. Making me laugh. cringe. cry and all those other feelings Trump can bring out of Patriotic Americans. Bottom line, Trump knows nothing..
This was a great article. I've been watching Trump spin out of control these past weeks, and thinking, 'this country is being run by an absolute lunatic.' Of course I've been thinking that for almost three years now, but this time around, made me realize it's time for Article 25 to be invoked. Our country is in immediate danger from this madman and he's capable of going far beyond the idiocy and cruelty of what he just did in Syria (which he now claims was a great success). He's unhinged and very, very dangerous.
4
Most people learn that when you misspeak it is in one's self interest to own up to it. It endears you to others when you admit a mistake. A little self effacement is quite charming. Trump's response to the Colorado gaffe was pathetic. He said he was joking. He also said he was just kidding when he was busted for mocking the disabled reporter. When he displays his ignorance he compounds it with a lie. When he displays his cruelty he compounds it with a lie. I thought sociopaths and narcissists had some charm. We need to invent a new category in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ).
6
Two things Frank: Please never use the term “honest” in referring to Trump. And I wouldn’t say his speech is like a toddler playing with marbles; it’s more like a toddler making a mess in his pants.
5
And how about his letter to the Turkish president?!
How can Fordham and UPenn possibly claim he ever went to class? They should be ashamed that he holds degrees from them.
3
Specialists and linguists as well as just people with an ear for the outrageous and the ignorant, have been crying for attention from the medai and it's scribblers since before the election. I recall pointing out-as did numerous former military officers,m that Trump was suborning foreign governmets and their agents to spy upon, invade and abuse our wire services and to act as agents for the Trump-GOP candidacy-in exchange for(quid pro quo), promised favors concerning our international relations and possibly the end of NATO, a long standing, absolutely necessary alliance in Western Europe.,
This was offering to weaken and sell out West Europe in exchange for aid in electing Trump. Definitely aid, comfort and adherence to our enemies.
Trumpo has recently used the word "worser" a mal construction heard from children and ignoramases.
Yet, I find no Times writers making issues of these "errata". Errors which, if revealed, would have seen Nixon suffer a stroke-long before he boarded the plane back to California in '74. What has happened to the US- & where are our serious intellectuals? None at the Times, anymore. . .
Frank, I think you are so right about our president’s inner wail...which we see in his words. Vividly. For me, the question becomes what we do in response when we see and hear and know the magnitude of the profoundly damaging impact he is having—-in real time.
As a word lover, a sentence lover, like so many of us are, it is easy to point fingers. To exclaim. Gasp. Despair. (I certainly succumb!) However, I suggest we do something else.
Let’s ALL use our words. (As mamas of toddlers say.)
Let’s use our inside and outside voices. (Both so needed now).
Each in our own way (thank you for yours).
Each speaking truth.
Let the good, powerful, respectful, courageous words rise! (Thank you, whistleblower.)
Let the full, patriotic sentences soar.
Let the pens write, the songwriters compose, the artists create, the parents support, the elders share, the writers publish, the strategists speak...
Let every good voice be heard, because every word is needed now.
Let’s remember no one is powerless.
All voices belong.
Let’s speak truth to power, with love and courage.
Let’s invite the better angels of our nature to sing!
Because our country depends upon it. For me, I invoke Michelle Obama, “When they go low we go high.” There’s power waiting right there.
1
Trump’s English is not tortured it is intentional. This notion that his poor sentence structure and racially charged language full of dog whistles are the blurtings of a fool lets him off the hook. He stands behind every verbal mistake or repeats them incessantly because his audience loves it. When Obama would drop his “g’s” or Bush would enhance his Texas drawl or today’s Democrats running for President would speak Spanish or enhance an accent they no longer have, it’s to appeal to voters. Trump’s language is his appeal; “listen, that rich guy is just like us!”. He says the awful things many of his core supporters think even in the same syntax. When more literate commentators point out his bad English, it makes Trump’s point- they are different from us, they are making fun of us.
148
@DO5 I think you're confusing the notes (words) with the melody (the rise and fall of volume, the alterations of pitch, and the pauses). If one listens to the cadence of Mr. Trump's speech and ignores the meaning, the impression is one of Everyman offering remarks "straight from the shoulder." Very reassuring. If one takes the words into account, the impression becomes one of an egotistical, insecure and untutored person with a shaky hold on actuality.
29
@DO5 Trump’s language Is tortured as well as intentional. He is grasping for any word that pops up in his mind and as if on a conveyor belt, it slides right down and shoots out of his mouth or fingers. I agree with Bohemian Sara that there appears to be organic brain deterioration. Article 25 should have been used to remove this unwell man from office early on. He is a danger to this country.
31
@DO5 - Wondering if any core supporters ever worked
for trump or at trump's properties and didn't get
paid. Would they still be in love?
19
"Give the president a thesaurus and a therapist," the columnist recommends. I like the alliteration, but if the idea is that learning more words will improve one's speaking and writing, I have to demur. "The basis of style is character," says F. L. Lucas in his classic book "Style: The Art of Writing Well," a truth echoed in the aphorism "Style is the man." A vile person will speak and write villainy no matter how many words the person knows.
13
What I want to know is how did he graduate from college. Perhaps his father hired a ghost student for him.
12
@Eric Thompson
Ivy League college, no less. Yes, Fred’s money was involved.
Mr Bruni: As Trump would say, "Very, very, very greatly covfefe."
3
Trump Dictionary
I would like to send two books to the White House: a Thesaurus, and the book American History for Dummies. The current occupant of that mansion seems to rely on the following adjectives and other words and phrases for all purposes when speaking off-the-cuff or posting on Twitter.
Hah-rrible (Horrible) – anyone who either disagrees with or criticizes him, or any traumatic event like a mass shooting
Tremendous – anything he claims to have accomplished, or a quality of anyone who agrees with, or pretends to agree with him
Fantastic – same as Tremendous
Incredible – same as Tremendous (This enhances his perception of possessing a broad vocabulary)
Stupid - reporters who ask valid questions about important topics, as well as to describe political opponents
Disgrace – anyone who reveals, or points out his lies and/or “disgraceful” behavior
Racist – anyone who calls him a racist
Very, very bad – anything not in his personal interest
Not good – behavior or actions of his political opponents
Bad people – everyone who disagrees with, or criticizes him
“We’ll see what happens.”- standard comment on a wide variety of national concerns
OK? –follows one of his highly questionable statements in an attempt to validate
Perfect – anything he says or does
As for American History, well, his knowledge of that subject could certainly use augmentation.
9
...and then there was Obama’s eulogy of Rep. Cummings, a contrast in oratorical skills and rhetoric. And class. Oh, yeah - I guess I kind of forgot what class in a leader looks and sounds like.
20
When you listen to trump, you think you are listening to someone doing a very bad impersonation of trump.
7
"Trump seems to have placed his dictionary on the same unreachable shelf where his conscience gathers dust". Perfect!
11
Trump's English sounds like a villain in a kid's superhero comic.
6
The president’s use of language strikes me a second someone who has suffered multiple small strokes and perseverates on certain words. I wonder if an MRI of his brain would look like a piece of Swiss cheese...
5
Its absurd to state that incessantly-lying Donald Trump is the most honest president of our lifetime. That’s mistaking imprudence and logorrhea with forthrightness and truthfulness.
3
I agree, the more atrocious his English gets, the more stress he appears to be feeling. Who knows, it could all be an act but if it is real then yeah, I don't get the butchering of the English language. We all make mistakes but I try my damnedest not to and I don't even use auto spell checkers and correctors so I can try to get it right without leaning on them.
When his supporters give up the benefits of science entirely then we'll know they're not being hypocritical. But they're happy to take advantage of what works for them but what gets in the way of their making money they are willing to throw away even though in the long term science says it'll come and bit you back.
1
Comreade trump was born without a conscience. Just an
asset.
4
As I was driving by the dreaded Mar a Lago the other day, even the digital road sign outside his gates incorrectly read: Deetor
3
My grandparents, both of whom were NYC school teachers, one actually taught English, lied to me.
They said I would never get anywhere if I couldn't speak or write a sentence in English. They forgot to tell me it was not a requirement for the Presidency, though perhaps in their lifetimes it was.
Second- someone yesterday said President Obama was mocking Trump at the funeral for Congressman Cummings by speaking repeatedly in complete sentences.
Sigh.
9
The more I hear him speak—the bigotry, the malapropisms, the juvenile name calling, the ignorant assertions, etc.—the more I become convinced we have Archie Bunker as president.
5
Alas, even Archie was coherent and spoke in complete sentences.
1
Trump speaks in what is called a “word salad” .It is a psychiatric term to describe words which are unintelligible being jumbled together in a manner which makes it impossible for the listener to understand the meaning of the speech. Why do so many people look for meaning in Trump’s rants.? He is not communicating-he is spewing words as they come to him.Do not try to find any reason in his syntax-he is a disturbed human being.
6
It’s unlikely that Trump has ever consulted a thesaurus in his life. It is likely he doesn’t know what a thesaurus is. To learn what a thesaurus is, he would need to consult a dictionary. And then he is back to square one.
5
Trump’s self pity mirrors his base. The Pity Party has replaced the GOP, the aggrieved, the “what is happening to my white privileged life.” (I am old and white). At least I have some pride. These white people in The Pity Party are just, flat out embarrassing.
4
>> The president needs a thesaurus and a therapist.
Even more important: he needs to be an ex-President. We’re working on it Sir, rest assured.
4
These words have a connection to the warped state of rreality that confronts us every day. The following is verbatim from a federal appeals court last week:
Federal judge: “Your position ... is that the immunity is absolute. ... And so if the president were to commit a crime, no matter how heinous ... that’s the position?”
Trump lawyer: “Yes.”
In that light, the following conversation is hardly unlikely:
Donald: "I could lynch somebody and nobody could even investigate it?"
William: "That's my position."
Donald" "I could lynch Pelosi or Schiff?"
William: "That's my position."
3
@Frank Bruni- you win your own weekly contest for brilliant sentences with this gem:
“But then Trump seems to have placed his dictionary on the same unreachable shelf where his conscience gathers dust.”
Thank you for your columns and your newsletters!
5
My neighbor's seven year old son has the reading capacity of an 18 year old, although that might not be saying much as so many of our students are illiterate.
Consider Trump's repetitions: a sentence said again while he struggles to come up with a new one; the use of the same adjectives over and over again, such as great, perfect, beautiful and the almost constant "we'll see" after some bombastic smear, or promise of the impossible.
I have little expectation that someone who cannot see beyond his nose and does not read will be able to speak grammatically, nor do I expect coherency when there is no ability to perceive reality but only himself. Hyperbole and bad spelling are just a part of the revelations of Trump's limits as a human being. Language is communication; Trump's efforts at that are dismal except when it comes to his rallies which only incite the mob.
2
Several analyses by linguists reveal that Individual 1 has become considerably less articulate over the years, suggesting the possibility that his unintentionally hilarious misuse of language is a product of a deteriorating brain.
He certainly seems to lack some essential component that allows for effective communication.
18
@CB Evans he communicates just fine with his deplorables it seems. Maybe they also have deteriorating brains.
“His torture of English is rooted in the torture of being Trump — with all those wants, all that need, all that vanity, all that spite. He’s never eloquent and barely articulate but always expressive, because you say a lot when you say it all wrong.”
You really have written a gem here, Mr. Bruni. You obviously have captured and put into words the cause and effect of the daily assaults on our sensibilities and the mother tongue as well.
You point out he may have lost his marbles, and that clearly seems likely. There is no therapy that could help, unfortunately. As a retired licensed clinical social worker, I know one has to be willing to do the work by acknowledging the need for it. He, by his own assessment, is perfect.
To his devoted base, his ineloquent rants convey just enough of what they want from him, license to feel the unbridled hatred of everyone who wants a more equitable society for all, unfortunately, that includes people who they consider too different to accept. He embodies that worldview like no president before has done and they see him as a dream come true.
For the rest of us, he is a dark nightmare.
20
I listened to President Obama's eulogy for Representative Cummings---and, for a rare moment in these last three years felt good about being an American and how much we have missed Obama's grace and his intelligence. In fact, I have gone back and listened several times to the eulogy, just, to hear full sentences again, punctuated with a high school/college vocabulary.
45
Though I would be the first to admonish anyone making a learning disability diagnosis without comprehensive testing, from my vantage it seems that one reason for Trump’s overwhelming insecurity is his obvious weakness in all verbal tasks. I strongly suspect Trump has always struggled to read and absorb language, often part of more general cognitive processing difficulties. In other words, Trump is a person who could have helped by Special Education. Instead of coming to terms with his challenges and learning how to mitigate them, he abandoned the effort, to everyone’s loss.
18
@Special Educator I agree and have thought the same for a while. At the time Trump was a child a child with a learning disability was labeled "a bad child" . The learning disability was never addressed.
1
@Special Educator :I taught K/1 for 25 years & repeatedly saw the same challenges in many of my kids. With support from school & home, and plenty of hard work, many of these children went on the thrive in school. I think it was their hard work, dedication, and desire to learn that made the most difference.
Unfortunately for Donald Trump and all of us, he apparently lacked all of these skills and ambitions.
2
@Special Educator, how did he graduate from Wharton, or for that matter, from any college? I believe there is an unreported story about who did his work, took his tests, and wrote reports, because it couldn’t have been him.
Sometimes I wish I were still teaching English. If I assigned my students to analyze Trump's grammar and vocabulary, they would tear it pieces and have fun doing so!
23
I can see why someone in government would work for trump. what I don't understand is why anyone in the private sector would work for this guy.
11
it is not so much the meaning of words as the glimpse they afford us into his mindset. For example, when he calls Nancy Pelosi a Thrid Rate/Grade politician, he is projecting his own insecurities onto her. In a similar vein, he also has a tell when he is about to a lie: "People are saying" or "Many people have told me" that ... [and then the lie follows]. The tell functions reflexively to make the lie more believable to his audience. it is as if he is acknowledging that the audience probably thinks he is a lier, so he tries to reassure them that the statement you are about to hear is not coming from him, but instead from the many people who are saying it. In that sense, I guess you are right that he has inadvertently been a rather transparent president.
21
Your writing is superb, and your command of the English language is a wonderful contrast to the subject you wrote about today. Thank you. This country is living through a Greek tragedy, and we can only hope that a hero is in the wings.
45
@C.B. Taylor Reality, rather than staged drama, is more likely to bring us: recession, a terrorist catastrophe, a suspension of civil rights, a suspension of elections, or worse. This disaster will continue and worsen until Cons, on a large scale, chose to put Country over Party. The appearance that this is all a "partisan witch hunt" is almost solely attributed to their choice to reverse that loyalty.
@C.B. Taylor
There is no hero waiting in the wings. We must collectively step up and shoulder the responsibility for wresting our democracy back from this lunatic and his quislings.
We have to save ourselves. Vote, donate, march, treat each other with kindness.
1
With an assist from Russian interference, gerrymandering, voter supression and the Electoral College, a large minority of the electorate put Trump in office. That this could happen again makes impeachment and removal from office our best hope for saving our Republic.
24
The whole thing is Orwellian. Trump is trying to take our language away. Or rather, Trump and his listeners are those who never had language to begin with.
24
@Jonathan
It is the first one. This is an old ploy tactic technique whatever you want to call it of classist and monarchist rulers.
Having been intentionally denied use of language myself through abuses I will not go into. I know that you can know a thing but lacking the words to describe it you have no power to deal with that thing or to convince anyone that you actually know it and are aware of it. If you try to use the words you do have inevitably those who speak "better" assume that you are trying to act smarter than you are and never bother to try to understand you.
The last mangler of basic English was George W. Bush. Observers said that he spoke in "simple declarative sentences", which appealed to the species of supporters of Trump, and was preferable to the double-clause constructions of Gore. "i am the decider" he assured us Americans. Bush may have lacked the ugliness and phenomenal self-absorption of Trump, but he was remarkably clumsy with his native tongue. “Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”, he once informed us. FDR spoke in Hemingway language, Biden not so much. Maybe language should be the crucible for trimming the Democratic field.
12
@Richard Swanson I think Mr. Swanson is more than correct when he says that a certain kind of language appeals to the "species of supporters of Trump". I believe that the appeal for those supporters of he who currently occupies the White is that they speak the same kind of language.
It is another example of how shared language can both elevates and affirms a world view , in this case a view embedded in "toxic masculinity" .
3
@Ed Ferszt Toxic masculinity, ignorance and a fundamental inarticulateness.
I couldn't agree more with your thoughts on Trump's language abilities. I had many thoughts on "loss" while watching excerpts of Rep Cummings' memorial. One loss of course was the civility of discourse he was known for. Trump and many other politicians from both sides of the isle could learn a thing or twelve. Another was simply how I so miss a president, who when speaking, you actually want to hear the words that flow from their mouths. Hearing Obama and Clinton talk only magnified the inarticulate words of Trump. My ears cannot take 5 more years of DJT's "perfect" use of the English language.
42
A lot, if not all, of trump's votes came from people who were very disturbed at having had a black president for eight years. Obama was not only black, but also highly articulate. To them, those two things were infuriating and jarring as it didn't fit in with their conception of how things should be. A white (orange?) man who "spoke like them" would set things right again and show those elites a thing or two.
64
@JacksonG
Yes, most of Trump's voters are people who will never vote for a Democrat again, no matter who the candidate would be. Or what office. After all, the Democrats put a black man in the White House. To all of my liberal friends who declared "Racism must be dead in this country" after Obma's election: look what crawled out from under the rocks!
3
The English language has had a really rough time these last few years, with or without Trump. He just raised the degradation to a higher level, or should be we say lowered the meaning of words to an even more degraded level.
Words that should be reserved for extraordinary descriptive use are routinely thrown around to describe the mundane.
For example, "This taco is AWESOME!"
Okay, if the taco is awesome, what word are we going to use to describe The Grand Canyon?
So Trump says his shakedown phone call to the president of Ukraine was "perfect." Actually, "shakedown" is the accurate description of that phone call.
His hyperbolic inaccurate word usage is a difference in degree, but not in kind, from what has been happening to the English language in the age of twittering, temper tantrums, and rude and arrogant texts sent by itchy fingers that did not bother to engage the brain before touching the keypad.
25
@scrim1
Your point is well-taken, and one I continue to make to people all the time.
Still, in answer to the question, "Okay, if the taco is awesome, what word are we going to use to describe The Grand Canyon?":
How about "spicy and delicious"?
4
@scrim1 How about The Grand canyon looks delicious today?
2
@scrim1
Everyone who’s anyone knows that the Grand Canyon is wickid pissah. The problem with English is that it can’t keep up with the awesomeness of Don the Con. He has transcended language just as he has nature, probity and the law. He speaks to his people in a way that they feel in their hearts is awesome, even if they’re unable to understand exactly what he’s saying. They feel that they know what he means, just as some pastors feel that they know God.
Supporters of this "president" defend themselves against criticism that they are ignorant bigots by noting that trump "tells it like it is," he "tells the truth" the way they want to tell it. This excellent assessment of the way trump says what he says confirms, as well, who his cult, at heart, is: hyper-entitled, unjustifiably angry, ignorant, spoiled in every sense of the word, destructive, hateful, selfish. They believe in their hearts--"For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of"--that equality, charity, humanity for others means less for themselves. Like him, they would rather see this country burn to the ground than tolerate those "others" taking an equal place at the table.
They say they're not hateful bigots, but they consider the man who speaks nothing but hatred, bigotry and self-worship, the "Second Coming of God" who speaks for them. They can't have it both ways. He speaks their hearts.
46
@Gustav Aschenbach
Agreed. They say he "Says it like it is" but then when that backfires they say, "That's not what he meant."
2
When I listen to and read what this president has said, it seems clear to me he is insane. He simply speaks as his mind works and that is quite a tangle. He is running scared, and we must remind ourselves at every turn, that just because his base is hot to defend him, his base is not as large as those of us who have had enough. And some on the fence who thought they'd give him a shot, may have regrets. Do not lose hope. Give him enough time to think out loud and he can, as some are beginning to say, "impeach himself."
37
Trump used the term "lynching" for shock value. He likes to stir the pot, and grab media attention where he can. The focus should be on the fact our President is even interested in using words to provoke us. What does that say about his mental health? And of course, what does it say about us, that too many Americans accept it?
17
Millions of sane people are watching as an insane man is our President with access to all our nation's military secrets and all its power.
What does that say of all of us inactively sitting by and watching this?
37
Wonderful piece!
16
And the biggest unanswered question is ; Why do the 40%'s continue to drink the Kool-aid? My 7 year old grandchildren speak more eloquently than Donnie!
27
Trump, when speaking in front of an audience plays a character like the many we've seen on his good friend Vince Mc Mahon show WWF, he plays a naughty type cheering the crowd, and the peoples attending these events are just delighted by such vulgar manners. Deplorable.
16
Sure, to NYT readers he's an illiterate buffoon. But to the rest of the country, he speaks their language. It's precisely this kind of intellectual elitism that has alienated the Trump voters. To them, he is eloquent and truthful. He is communicating with them very successfully. While I agree with Mr. Bruni's column, which is both entertaining and terrifying, I don't think it's helpful. Use the word "splenetic" in Kentucky and see how far you get with the typical voter.
193
@Sally
It is not 'intellectual elitism' to expect that an adult -- particularly one entrusted with the office of the presidency -- express himself (at the very least) with clarity and truthfulness (i.e. not making obvious lies such as doctoring a map, or contradicting yourself in the same sentence).
And the trump voter is not the 'typical voter.' The trump voter is the minority that receives disproportionate attention (and is resistant to ALL argument, simple and plain or otherwise) because of the Electoral College.
Instead of defining eloquence DOWN to their level, a democracy that relies upon an informed electorate has a duty to raise all voters UP to the level of competent participation -- a duty at which we have been failing for some time now, because it benefits the elites of trump's party to sneer at 'elitism.'
197
@Sally Agree. We should never ignore the alternative hypothesis - that it is all deliberate.
I'm of for a covfefe.
26
@Sally
I know many people who voted for Trump. They come from all walks of life and socio-economic classes. None of them speak like Trump.
62
I truly enjoyed seeing someone finally addressing,what every English teacher in America must be cringing about, Trumps 5th grade use of the language. I suppose that's giving some 5th graders a put down. Truly a well written and articulate piece of commentary. The take away for me is the complete understanding as to why Trump had his school records sealed and anything related to his being other than a stable genius.
17
@Schupbacha Stable genius: the smartest horse in the barn.
"As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand."
-Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
12
Words escape me.
Coherent thoughts escape Trump, consistently.
Our minds are being polluted, persistently.
One recurring nightmare from childhood would be to envision being locked in a room, 24/7, with my fourth grade grammar teacher, endlessly diagramming sentences because, hey, that's what you are suppose to do! Now, in our long national nightmare, the reverse has been writ large: we are locked in a big room called America with a teacher who evades grammar, spelling and ordinary syntax as if they were his mortal enemy and, from all abundant evidence, does not actually, you know, think. Instead, he's locked in a pattern of insistent self glorification while striking out at "enemies" with determination and lack of restraint that would have even embarrassed Richard Nixon, when sober.
Words are the building blocks of thought and reason. Without clear expression we are lost in a storm tossed sea of mutilated mutterings adding up to confusion and despair.
Trump has his finger on the nuclear button and he has used it to annihilate coherent thought. In so doing, he tortures not just his version of American English, he tortures all of us and, ultimately, if we were to follow him down this polluted stream, to become like him, lost. He lives in an asylum of his own careful construction and I wish to be free, free at last.
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Trump affects the people he comes into close contact with in one of two ways; they are either corrupted by him or repulsed.
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Not much one can add to Mr. Bruni's excellent column except to say one's speech and writing is a reflection of one's thinking - enough said.
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@Angelo Sgro
What comes out of the mouth, comes from the heart!
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Yet, his fractured rhetoric inflames millions! Speech of the most elegant sort may not be his talent but he’s ferociously persuasive to legions of devoted followers. Thinking of a Kennedy or an Obama with soaring rhetoric and civilized discourse is not helpful in analyzing Trump’e “inspiration “ of the GOP Troops. Eisenhower, too, mangled the language to the consternation of many English purists. What Trump has exposed with his rhetoric, inartful as it may be, is the vast reservoir of hate he has tapped into among millions who would not condemn him if he went out onto 5th Avenue and shot someone. Too many articles in the Times detailing his failings instead of examining the hearts of millions who excuse and defend his open commission of crimes!
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Listening this week to Obama at Elijah Cummings funeral made me cry. Praise for someone else, thoughtfulness, intelligence, and oratory skill. A great man eulogizing a great man. It seemed like a vision from a far away place.
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It seems to me Trump's statement that the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution is "phony" should be added to the articles of impeachment. He swore to uphold the Constitution but obviously wants to pick and choose the parts he wants to uphold.
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@fwest
"Phony," eh? If he'd go down the street to the National Archives, he could read the words as originally written. I'd suggest he take Stephen Miller and a few others with him.
What I find most disturbing is the reason so many of his followers supposedly adore him and voted for him, and will again, quoted repeatedly in one form or another:
"He says what most people are thinking [or, what most people believe or feel], but are afraid to say."
If you follow that sentiment to its natural conclusion, then we are a nation in deep, deep you-know-what.
And all I can come up with for a reason is a terrible deficiency of early childhood education.
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@Jan I can think of another reason: choice. People are too willing to blame teachers and education, rather than individuals and their choices.
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@Gustav Aschenbach You may be misunderstanding me. I consider most teachers selfless and dedicated professionals fighting against tremendous odds in many cases.
I also consider a huge part of "early childhood education" to be parents taking the time to read to their children, showing them the beauty of nature over video games, teaching them about kindness and telling the truth, etc.
In other words, "individuals and their choices," so I think we agree.
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Oddly, Trump's great strength is his candor. He is a hugely flawed individual tearing our country apart, but there is no mistaking who he is and what he is doing. People love him for it. As his new press secretary said about John Kelly "he was unequipped to handle the genius of our President." Trump doesn't do much that matters and tells terrific lies. He knows that we know he is lying, but that we don't care. We are enjoying the show. That is his genius.
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@jdp What sane person is "enjoying" this show?
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@jdp "People love him for it," i.e., for being who he is and showing it.
I don't understand "loving" a monster who is acting like a monster. Fearing it, maybe, or loathing it - but not "loving" it.
@jdp why is it always southerners defending this guy? What’s in the water down there exactly?
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The Trump you interpret here is both "losing his marbles" as you write, and leader of the free world. What I see lacking in the column is the perversity of his intent. There is a haunting "unknown" that is reflected in the Trump mania that defies the simple and categorical conclusion that this is a man without language. He expresses his evil well enough. He commands his cohorts to break the law and mistreat immigrants, and despoil the next election (as he had the election that gave us himself) all well enough.
There is something driving the man that is about a deeper crime and a more evil plan -- that conjures the poorly worded and crazed utterances you write of. When it all comes out, I believe we will be shocked by not his language, but his deeds.
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Trump's limited and shrinking vocabulary is a sign of his mental decline.
Just compare tapes of Trump on Howard Stern from the 1990s and now.
Trump speaks on a much lower grade level than he used to.
His sentence structure has declined, his repetition has increased.
Trump interrupts himself mid-thought, doesn't recall what he's said earlier. Has comprehension problems.
Trump uses fewer words, borders on incoherence. Has a poor grasp on his emotions.
Yet another reason why Trump is unfit for office.
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Trump is also perhaps "the most honest president of (our) lifetime" if you recognize that so much of his hysterical histrionics is actually projection. It is almost as if he has an honest alter-ego that uncontrollably and repeatedly calls out others for the exact misdeeds he is guilty of.
All part of the strange alternate universe in which we all currently reside.
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Trump language gives voice to white people, both entitled, rich individuals and disenfranchised, poor people living in rural areas, who feel victimized and perceive themselves as marginalized by liberalism and progressive policies. Unfortunately, instead of rectifying or establishing policy back in balance, his language polarizes, divides and sows mistrust. Trump is uncannily cunning with his choice of words. He encourages his loyalists to interfere, mount attacks, stoke unrest, disrupt. Trump exploit society’s deepest divisions, like racism and the thirst for increased power and social honor, to his advantage.
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Anyone who doesn't realize that Trump's election was a mean, vicious and vindicative act - a thumb in the eye or punch in the nose of Red States to Blue States - is not thinking or seeing clearly. Yes, there were the "he's a businessman" and "he will shake up Washington" narratives that seemed to carry some clout. But all in all, it was the chance in the lifetime to smear liberals, Democrats, pundits, elites, and coastals, and slam them hard. Thank you Comey, and thank you, in the words of LBJ, "My fellow Americans," for electing this feeble tyrant.
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Alfred North Whitehead summed Mr. Bruni's piece in his 1929 Aims of Education: "Style is the ultimate morality of mind."
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Lord knows the American political system is wildly imperfect, with unfair advantage accruing to the rich and powerful since forever, and especially in the past generation or so. Yes, a fix is and has been needed for a long time. But allowing an obscenely corrupt and malevolent force like Trump to enter and infect that already vulnerable system is just heartbreaking.
I think the image of American forces air bombing their own supply depots as they pulled out of Syria is a sadly apt metaphor for what Trump has contributed to the American storyline. I'm 55 years old, and I sincerely hope I will see a genuine reversal of this national rot in my lifetime.
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How would someone like Trump, who has always been vulgar know that his language is inappropriate for someone in the Oval Office, when none of the sycophants who work for him criticize his language? They are like parents who say nothing when their children use foul language in public. And like such children, Trump probably interprets the silence of his aides as approval.
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It's not the words he uses to describe himself, others, places and things, it's the words that others use to describe him: despicable;
demented, deranged, deplorable, deceitful, disgusting, depraved ... and that's just the beginning of the words beginning with the letter 'd.'
Then there are the cruel and nasty phrases proudly proclaimed by our malapropist-in-chief that would confound and embarrass even Yogi Berra or Homer Simpson.
Most of these words and phrases are designed to incite hatred, violence against those who disagree with this corrupt narcissist and possess the courage to challenge him to save our democracy
from further destruction.
As we also know, quite a few highly respected therapists have already agreed with the opinion expressed above and voiced their assessments of this individual's dysfunctional behavior.
Vote.
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What’s so devastating to the country, ultimately, is that Donald Trump seems to live in an alternative universe where up is down and bad is great.
It is through such perverted thinking that he comes to perceive events and people in hyperbolic terms that bear little, if any, resemblance to reality. He does all of this while looking in the mirror, seeing nothing more than his own self-enriching presence.
It is in this way, in Trump’s mind, failing to see the world as it really is, that deeply flawed becomes perfect, and terrible becomes great.
Trump crows that the press is the enemy while claiming that his own utterances are perfect. But it is also said that perfect is the enemy of the good.
That would make Trump, himself, by his own admission, the enemy of the good. It all makes sense now.
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