# Latest Trump slurring episode
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [December 15, 2019, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918 "2019-12-15T22:52:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2019, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/1 "2019-12-15T22:52:52Z")
To date, I have been skeptical of the trope “Trump fumbled a word, therefore he is losing his mind.” Cheap shots like that are easily countered by any photo of any other politician doing the same, which they all do at some point.
However, I am persuaded that something’s going on when I see this bit from Dec 6th in which it appears that [he has suddenly turned into Sean Connery](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K-vKebt4U8). He’s shushing all of his S’s, not just one or two of them, in a way I’ve never heard him do before. In general his facial expressions look like he’s really struggling to get through the speech, almost pained or anxious, not his typical grandstanding style.
He obviously didn’t write this speech, so he might be experiencing some stress related to reading. But in any case, there’s enough slurring to make me agree that the has, or is developing, a neurological issue that the WH has not yet disclosed.
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### Author:  [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2019, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/2 "2019-12-15T23:52:10Z")
You do realize the date on that video is December 6, 2017, not 2019, right? If this were really a significant neurological issue and not, say, a temporary problem with his dentures or something, I would expect it to have become noticeably worse over the last couple of years.
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### Author:  [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2019, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/3 "2019-12-16T01:59:29Z")
Oh wow, it just hit my feed today, I didn’t realize it was 2017. So I guess I was wrong to completely dismiss it for the past 2 years ago, but it’s not evidence of recent decline either.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2019, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/4 "2019-12-16T02:27:23Z")
I dislike him as much as the next guy, but I always just chalk that up to him not being a great public speaker. I routinely ‘lose’ a word here and there or trip over half a sentence. It says nothing about my intelligence, just that I’m usually talking to fast and getting ahead of myself. I’ve done it for as long as I can remember. Also, the people calling them him out speak in front of audiences and live on TV as a chosen profession. They’re naturally going to be good at it.
This is one of those cases where I would say there’s a lot of reasons to hate him but this isn’t one.
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2019, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/5 "2019-12-16T02:59:24Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#):
>
> I dislike him as much as the next guy, but I always just chalk that up to him not being a great public speaker. I routinely ‘lose’ a word here and there or trip over half a sentence. It says nothing about my intelligence, just that I’m usually talking to fast and getting ahead of myself. I’ve done it for as long as I can remember. Also, the people calling them him out speak in front of audiences and live on TV as a chosen profession. They’re naturally going to be good at it.
>
> This is one of those cases where I would say there’s a lot of reasons to hate him but this isn’t one.
Disagree. Trump in 1999 was in his 50s and he was a far more cogent, thoughtful person in control of his emotions than he is in his 70s. Something has happened and needs to be looked into. Compare how he talked in his 50s to now.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_IG07XhT3k)
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2019, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/6 "2019-12-16T03:02:24Z")
Having watched the video, it sure seems to me like he is suffering from loose dentures.
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### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2019, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/7 "2019-12-16T05:25:20Z")
> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> Having watched the video, it sure seems to me like he is suffering from loose dentures.
I don’t know denture symptoms, but the slurring did NOT strike me as suggestive of cerebral problem.
We can hope, however, that in some other way, Father Time does overtake the aging dotard in the coming months. Other than recession, that may be America’s best chance for November success.
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### Author:  [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2019, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/8 "2019-12-16T05:44:38Z")
I think Trump does show signs of significant cognitive decline, but a lot of the slurring and such I also chalk up to loose dentures.
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### Author:  [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2019, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/9 "2019-12-16T07:26:58Z")
The problem with stuff like this is there are just too many variables. How long did this speech last, was he dehydrated when he started talking?
He definitely has some weird nasal thing going on in all his longer speeches, it could be so many things that it’s only speculation: sinusitis, congestion, cocaine abuse, a deviated septum there is really no way to tell what’s going on unless you were a doctor examining him. I don’t think he has dentures, veneers more likely.
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### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2019, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/10 "2019-12-16T09:17:43Z")
It’s his dentures. I know this because he recently accused Pelosi of losing hers.
And we all know how he likes to project.
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### Author:  [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2019, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/11 "2019-12-16T09:30:58Z")
> [@Grrr](#):
>
> It’s his dentures. I know this because he recently accused Pelosi of losing hers.
>
> And we all know how he likes to project.
Yeah, he’s as predictable as a six-year-old. Whatever he accuses of someone else is precisely what he has done.
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### Author:  [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2019, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/12 "2019-12-16T13:25:50Z")
> [@Grrr](#):
>
> It’s his dentures. I know this because he recently accused Pelosi of losing hers.
This is a pretty powerful argument to me.
OK, I’m back to leaning toward his neuro issue being that of a stupid person who is very slowly and gently getting stupider, and he also is bobbling with ill-fitting dentures. I guess not even a gold-plated presidential dental plan of an alleged billionaire is effective enough to prevent those rotten fangs from wobbling around in his gob.
But at this point, if he had a stroke and lost 10% of his brain function, I don’t know how I’d be able to discern that kind of division by zero.
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### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2019, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/13 "2019-12-16T13:39:56Z")
I suspect Trump talks like that when he has something “official” to say because he’s being given the words in his ear literally one at a time so he can’t fuck it up, but I can’t prove it.
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2019, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/14 "2019-12-16T13:48:00Z")
[quote=“Wesley\_Clark, post:5, topic:844918”]
Disagree. Trump in 1999 was in his 50s and he was a far more cogent, thoughtful person in control of his emotions than he is in his 70s. Something has happened and needs to be looked into. Compare how he talked in his 50s to now.
[/QUOTE]
In the intervening years he learned that pugnacious fireworks and letting it all hang out gets better ratings than cogent, thoughtful and in control, and it is a self-reinforcing cycle. But the substance of content was fundamentally the same wrt repetitive statements about how great I am, how my polls are the best, how I don’t want just a symbolic win, how the other guy is a terrible loser (save for a denunciation of those who today would be “fine people on both sides”). Add simple mechanicals of loose dentures/lessened muscular control of breathing and you may get close to today’s speech pattern.
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### Author:  [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2019, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/15 "2019-12-17T01:51:55Z")
> [@septimus](#):
>
> I don’t know denture symptoms, but the slurring did NOT strike me as suggestive of cerebral problem.
It’s likely not a problem with cognition. But it could be cerebral-related without it having anything to do with cognitive ability. For example, MS can cause slurred speech. This is usually the result of weakness and/or incoordination of the muscles of the tongue, lips, cheeks and mouth.
As the movement of lips, tongue, etc., needed for speech are voluntary motor actions it would seem those are cerebral functions. I think.
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### Author:  [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2019, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/16 "2019-12-17T01:57:15Z")
[quote=“Wesley\_Clark, post:5, topic:844918”]
Disagree. Trump in 1999 was in his 50s and he was a far more cogent, thoughtful person in control of his emotions than he is in his 70s. Something has happened and needs to be looked into. Compare how he talked in his 50s to now.
[/QUOTE]
I’m gonna have to disagree on that interview. Here in this 99 interview he’s doing mostly the same thing he is now, touting his popularity and the fake media. Granted he has more command of ideas that he thinks serves him, but it’s like being fluent in a language with 10 words.
I’m not going to link it but he had a Letterman interview in 1980 where he seemed not totally stupid and not totally horrible, for an amoral real estate developer. Suffice to say it’s night and day difference between now and then.
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2019, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/17 "2019-12-17T15:41:47Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#):
>
> I’m gonna have to disagree on that interview. Here in this 99 interview he’s doing mostly the same thing he is now, touting his popularity and the fake media. Granted he has more command of ideas that he thinks serves him, but it’s like being fluent in a language with 10 words.
>
> I’m not going to link it but he had a Letterman interview in 1980 where he seemed not totally stupid and not totally horrible, for an amoral real estate developer. Suffice to say it’s night and day difference between now and then.
I kind of think that sometime around the turn of the century he realized he really liked being in the public eye in a way he hadn’t before. I mean, we’d heard of him prior to that in the 1980s as some sort of “world’s richest man” sort of character, but in the early 2000s, it really ramped up with “The Apprentice” and the other stuff, and I think he’s just homed in on what gets ratings/popularity/infamy.
That said, I’m not so convinced that all of this is just a ratings act; he really does seem to have some screws loose- the verbal diarrhea and mispronunciations are really odd.
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### Author:  [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2019, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/18 "2019-12-17T15:50:36Z")
> [@bump](#):
>
> I kind of think that sometime around the turn of the century he realized he really liked being in the public eye in a way he hadn’t before. I mean, we’d heard of him prior to that in the 1980s as some sort of “world’s richest man” sort of character, but in the early 2000s, it really ramped up with “The Apprentice” and the other stuff, and I think he’s just homed in on what gets ratings/popularity/infamy.
I think that can be true, and also maybe around that time he had lost the mental acuity to play any role more complicated than “world’s richest aggrieved racist uncle”.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2019, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/19 "2019-12-17T16:05:54Z")
> [@bump](#):
>
> I kind of think that sometime around the turn of the century he realized he really liked being in the public eye in a way he hadn’t before.
I don’t think he realized anything. For years he had been appearing in any commercial or movie or TV cameo he could get. He accepted every single opportunity. “The Apprentice” just turned out to be the biggest opportunity.
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### Author:  [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-trump-slurring-episode/844918/20 "2019-12-17T17:05:38Z")
> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> I don’t think he realized anything.
True, it’s always a risky proposition to suggest that trump realizes or thinks things. I don’t think he does, no more than a shark realizes or thinks that he has sharp teeth and preys upon smaller fish, yet there must be some neural process that makes that happen.
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