# Trump and spelling. **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 23, 2017, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-spelling/794433 "2017-08-23T05:21:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-spelling/794433/21 "2017-08-23T16:15:39Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > What makes you think that was a spelling mistake? Freudian slip, perhaps? 😃 Exactly what I thought when I read the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-spelling/794433/22 "2017-08-23T16:37:31Z")
Even I, who detest Trump, have to register a ‘_Don’t Care_’. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-spelling/794433/23 "2017-08-23T16:44:39Z")
It’s more a matter of him just shooting off his mouth without anyone minding the store. I guess some folks like to see him unfiltered, but it does not serve the best interests of the country. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-spelling/794433/24 "2017-08-23T17:51:40Z")
‘WYSIWYG’. You’ll probably appreciate that more in a couple of decades. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-spelling/794433/25 "2017-08-23T18:21:27Z")
I’d say the key to Trump’s lack of intellect is his very limited vocabulary. Every speech of his sounds like a 5th grader who is trying to stretch out an oral report to meet the required time limit. Also, Trump lacks the ability to be a verbal chameleon. This is quite shocking for someone who has had the career that he has. Trump sounds the same on the Apprentice, a campaign speech in Iowa, a State of the Union address, and a press conference with a foreign leader. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2017, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-spelling/794433/26 "2017-08-23T20:22:40Z")
> [@HeweyLogan](#): > > Serious response - is spelling ability a real determinate of intelligence? > > So you spell like shit, does that really mean you’re a fool? > > Ideas can be profound and beyond smart, but does it have to be spelled right to make it so? If one is sending out an official decree as the leader of the free world, then not having the brains to have such decrees spell checked makes one dumb. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-spelling/794433/27 "2017-08-24T15:40:16Z")
I think it’s more intellectual laziness and dishonesty rather than a lack of it. He’s such a great everything, including student, that he doesn’t need to do things like read, apply himself, or think for himself. He has Fox News for that. All he has going for him are animal cunning and money. I envision his college years as the classic entitled rich kid whose degree was effectively bought for him by Daddy, tooling around in his \ and partying with the cool kids until he alienates even them. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2017, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-spelling/794433/28 "2017-08-24T15:52:03Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Also, Trump lacks the ability to be a verbal chameleon. He certainly lacks the ability to (as the old joke puts it) fake sincerity. Compare his “liberals are just as bad as Klansmen and neo-Nazis” rants with the “hatred has no place in America” scripted speech – the former clearly came from the heart; the latter looked and sounded like a hostage video. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-spelling/794433/29 "2017-08-25T23:00:09Z")
Eh. We already know Trump is a serial Twitter user, and we also know that he doesn’t let his staff handle his phone. Half his tweets are probably done in the bathroom or while lying in bed. The spelling errors aren’t a sign of him being dumb - they’re a sign of him just not giving enough of a shit to look at what he wrote before he hits enter. I _always_ give a shit about what I write - and I’m not _too_ much of a moron - yet I still make errors in text messages relatively often. That’s just how the medium works. Swiftkey’s predictive autocorrect sometimes tries to change words that I have spelled correctly into the wrong word, and if I’m not paying attention one of them will slip through from time to time. A career politician would never let a tweet go out without looking at it very carefully and probably getting a few more sets of eyes on it. Trump just lets 'er rip because he loathes feedback and because he genuinely believes that he is universally loved (except by a small but vocal minority of losers). So why sweat the small stuff? ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2017, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-spelling/794433/30 "2017-08-26T01:52:03Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > Goofs like this accentuate his richly deserved reputation as an ignoramus, but they’re not a very promising line of attack in and of themselves. > [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > If one is sending out an official decree as the leader of the free world, then not having the brains to have such decrees spell checked makes one dumb. Cecil Adams’ take on it [here](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3019/are-poor-spellers-stupid) \*“…We’re told in the era of Facebook and Twitter nobody cares about grammar and spelling. Don’t believe it. In the global conversation made possible by the Internet, the easiest way to tell the smart folk from the knuckleheads is how often they make seemingly ignorant mistakes. You can make a few and still be taken seriously. Make a lot and you won’t.” \* ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-spelling/794433/31 "2017-08-31T20:49:39Z")
There’s plenty real to criticize the orange menace for. Spelling is one of the most superficial and unimportant things I can think of. My PhD thesis advisor was one of the most intelligent men I ever knew and one of the worst spellers. I could fill a long thread with stories of his howlers in the classroom. The criticism of Melania’s heels is equally idiotic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-and-spelling/794433.md?page=1)