# Is Trump confused? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [January 24, 2024, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589 "2024-01-24T13:53:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/81 "2024-01-25T20:20:22Z")
> [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > Then why did you phrase it as, “According to this board,” as if it some liberal hive mind belief rather than a belief you share? Argumentum ad populum. ---
**Author:** ![Dandan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@Dandan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/82 "2024-01-25T20:22:01Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I’d hate to have to call it Goebbels’ Law. Goebbeldegook. Dan ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/83 "2024-01-25T21:03:11Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Is this just a mis-speak of “we are an instutute WITH a powerful death penalty”? Could it be that he was trying to say that, under Biden, our country is “in a powerful death spiral,” and by the time he got to “death” he (a) lost his train of thought, and (b) figured “death…penalty?” ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/84 "2024-01-25T21:10:28Z")
On the de-bank thing, there are a couple of things he could be alluding to: 1. A couple of banks have dropped trump, like Deutsche bank. And just as trump has tried to pretend his legal problems are _the people’s_ legal problems, so it is with his bank accounts. 2. Less likely, but not impossible: on right wing media here in the UK there is a talking point of banks being political / woke since Nigel Farage got booted by his bank. (I won’t comment on whether this is valid, as I don’t want to hijack) It’s unusual for a UK talking point to spread to the US – rather than the other way round – but not inconceivable. I’m not defending trump. I’m just trying to classify correctly between “normal” incoherent bullshitting and neurological episode. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/85 "2024-01-25T21:24:30Z")
“They’re trying to de-bank you, and we will de-bank.” As I mentioned before, it’s entirely possible there was a coherent thought in his noggin when he opened his mouth. Where the cognitive failure occurs could be in translating that to speech. We all make verbal slips. Someone in significant cognitive decline doesn’t just slip, they have an ongoing system bug that produces something that doesn’t closely resemble what they want to convey. Keep your eye open for this, because it happens a good bit: Trump badly stumbles over a word or phrase, perhaps tries it again, then jumps to a different word or topic when he fails. It’s become a recognizable pattern, to me at least. You can picture the synapses misfiring before he issues an abort command. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/86 "2024-01-25T21:25:48Z")
Re: Explanations for what Trump _really_ meant Occam’s Razor tells me that the most plausible explanation is that Trump is getting increasingly confused in his thoughts and speech. Markedly so. We don’t need to make up _ad hoc_ things that maybe he meant. For the most part, he does not even know himself what he meant. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/87 "2024-01-25T21:26:56Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Occam’s Razor tells me that the most plausible explanation is that Trump is getting increasingly confused in his thoughts and speech. Markedly so. Yes. It seems crystal clear to me. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/88 "2024-01-25T21:35:04Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Occam’s Razor tells me that the most plausible explanation is that Trump is getting increasingly confused in his thoughts and speech. Markedly so. I’m not disagreeing with that. I’m simply saying that if our standard for focused, coherent speech is set at the standard of a normal human then almost every sentence has been garbage from day 1. If we’re going to claim there’s a decline, then we have to draw a distinction between off the cuff allusions to some vague talking point or CT, and a genuine mental shutdown, and say we’re seeing more of the latter. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/89 "2024-01-25T22:01:11Z")
I think we are seeing more. Yes, his speeches have been rambling garbage since day1. But now, the rambling garbage makes even less sense. At least before, it was not that difficult to parse what he really meant. Now? It’s pretty much impossible to even glean a sense of meaning out of the word salad. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/90 "2024-01-25T22:11:46Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > > [@pulykamell](#): > > > > Is this just a mis-speak of “we are an instutute WITH a powerful death penalty”? > > Could it be that he was trying to say that, under Biden, our country is “in a powerful death spiral,” and by the time he got to “death” he (a) lost his train of thought, and (b) figured “death…penalty?” I agree. I also thought he was trying to say _spiral_. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/91 "2024-01-25T22:46:27Z")
Ah, well, huh. That does seem to work even better. ---
**Author:** ![betonbill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b782af/32.png) [@betonbill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betonbill)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/92 "2024-01-25T22:47:35Z")
“De-bank” meaning debunk? Does that fit into whatever context he was trying to say? ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/93 "2024-01-25T22:52:39Z")
> [@betonbill](#): > > “De-bank” meaning debunk? Does that fit into whatever context he was trying to say? Damn. Ninja’d ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/94 "2024-01-25T23:06:59Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Could it be that he was trying to say that, under Biden, our country is “in a powerful death spiral,” and by the time he got to “death” he (a) lost his train of thought, and (b) figured “death…penalty?” Actually, I think you’re right about it being “death spiral”. I think what happened was that trump then read the next line of the speech before getting to that part. > [@pulykamell](#): > > For me, what’s worse is what follows, which is not mis-speak of any sort: “The only countries that don’t have a drug problem are those with the death penalty.” So he started with “America is in a…” looked away, then came back and read “death penalty” because he was looking at the next line. Problem is, he doesn’t know what he’s saying; it’s just words he’s recognizing and then parroting - peppered with random asides that reflect his true cognitive meanderings. I mean, if I’m correct then he doesn’t even have the wherewithal to recognize when he’s reading his speech _out of order_. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2024, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/95 "2024-01-26T04:06:46Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > …what comes out of his mouth is a mangled parroting of far right talking points and a quasi-random stream of consciousness that he is somehow even less coherent or truthful than a poorly reinforced chatbot… I’m not really a ‘tattoo’ guy, but if I was, I’d get this on my forehead. In some really _cool_ font! ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2024, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/96 "2024-01-26T04:34:23Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Everything really does come back to the Nazi party with these folks doesn’t it? They will never have such nice uniforms. All made in China with crappy gold lame. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2024, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/97 "2024-01-26T04:53:34Z")
Could all this recent worsening be just the signs of exhaustion? Trump is fighting four criminal indictments and two big civil trials, one of which threatens to kick his businesses out of New York. And at the same time, he’s traveling around, campaigning and holding rallies. That must take a toll on a person. ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2024, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/98 "2024-01-26T07:22:26Z")
It’s too bad he doesn’t just take off time with his family when he doesn’t have physically be on the campaign trail or in court. He could be with Ivanka and his grandkids eating some kosher pickles and matzo ball soup for God’s sake. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2024, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/99 "2024-01-26T15:51:33Z")
Doesn’t trump watch a ton of media? We know he always has an opinion on everything. I think he was trying to talk about the death penalty case that was being talked about everywhere because of the method they were choosing and he just got confused. Do we know if he even uses a teleprompter anymore? It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that he’s decided he can just ad lib his way through all these rallies. He’s got his material memorized, he would probably argue. He might even be having trouble reading a teleprompter these days. He won’t wear glasses even if he needs them. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2024, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589/100 "2024-01-26T19:49:37Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > Could all this recent worsening be just the signs of exhaustion? Trump is fighting four criminal indictments and two big civil trials, one of which threatens to kick his businesses out of New York. And at the same time, he’s traveling around, campaigning and holding rallies. That must take a toll on a person. I’m in no way a Trump apologist, I think he’s the Devil himself. But I kinda get the feeling that this pretty much explains it. Low mental capacity to begin with, poor health in general, normal cognitive decline for one’s age and doing all this stuff would make anyone sound like a loony. To me, his main problem is not being able to say no to opportunities for public speaking (except that one rally he just noped out on in AZ, citing Kari Lake being a problem). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-trump-confused/996589.md?page=6)