I saw the following on another site and want to know how accurate it is. Please nothing about how Trump is an idiot/savior of the modern world.
[Moderator Note - Everything below this is from the other site]
I have known about Trump since 1973, when he and his father were famously sued for housing discrimination. I had a run-in with him during the 1976 Bicentennial in NYC, when I was piloting one of the committee boats in NYC harbor. I don’t care for the guy; he’s bad news for everyone, and kills everything he touches. So I call him King Mid-ass.
Anyway, back to your question. I recently used a chatbot program to ascertain his vocabulary based on about 200 speeches and press conferences (among many) he’s had since the release of his first book, The Art of the Deal. However, I did not using his books for data collection, as all his books were ghostwritten. And we know Trump is notorious for writing nothing (emails, notes, articles, etc.), for reasons of accountability. But I digress.
Depending on the source of data and information, the average American adult can assimilate 25K-35K words. While that may be true, most people don’t/can’t use that many words in conversation or dialogue. They may know the words, but cannot bring themselves to utilize the words themselves in speaking or writing. Based on my readings, the Average American adult can incorporate only about 10K words in their writing and speaking activities.
So, imagine my surprise when my chatbot counted only 1975 words in all these speeches. More amazing (but not surprising) is that his “go-to” words are mostly adverbs and adjectives. Here’s the kicker: the average American 5 year-old uses anywhere between 2200–3500 words when speaking.
Just for clarity, is everything after the first paragraph from the other site? And you want to know the accuracy of all the asserted facts? That is, the average number of words used by an average American adult, the average number of words used by an average American 5-year-old, and the number of words used in speeches by Trump?
I don’t know any of those answers, but I am curious what it is you are actually asking.
Sorry I was unclear but everything after the first paragraph is from the other site. What I want to know first is if Trump’s vocabulary really that limited. And second are the other statements, such as the average number of words used by a 5 year old, true.
Trump does place the lowest on their list, but not by that much compared to recent presidents. Reagan was the last to speak at over a 10th grade level. Kennedy the was the last to be at a greater than high school level.
Note that they used the Flesch–Kincaid readability test, which is just a proxy for reading level. It scores higher for many-syllable words and many-word sentences. Many-syllable words are likely to correspond with a higher vocabulary, but it’s not guaranteed.
The numbers may be true. The true question is whether the numbers are meaningful. To know, one would have to take 200 speeches from a variety of other American politicians and count their words used. Spoken language in general and speeches in particular tend to use fewer different words than formal writing.
That’s not really a fair comparison. Trump’s 1975 words are from “vocabulary based on about 200 speeches and press conferences” while the average adult’s 10k words are from “their writing and speaking activities”.
I’m guessing the average person would appear to know less words if you only counted the times they were speaking in public.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending Trump, I’m just suggesting that if someone wants to do this correctly, ISTM, they should be pulling from similar sources. That is, if you’re just looking at 200 speeches and press confreences for Trump, you should be doing roughly the same thing for the average adult. Maybe pick another former president and analyze their speeches and press conferences starting 30ish years before they were elected?
Trump uses words “The Likes Of Which We’ve Never Seen”. Over and over. I don’t understand your question. Could you repeat it? (Just the question part, not the boat part.)
I do not know if it is true but as others have asked what does it tell us. How many of Trumps speeches are actually written by him? Rather than telling us that Trump’s vocabulary is very limited I think it says more that he (or his writers) want to say things in very simple terms and repeat things often (if you say something enough it must be true). I think it say more about Trump supporters than Trump himself.
That’s where I come down. If we’re talking about speeches, then we’re – by definition – talking about speech writers.
I suppose it’s debatable whether the aim of speech writers, who – I would guess – are eloquent and have well above average vocabularies – to target their intended audience (thereby, choosing simpler prose), or whether they don’t trust DJT with flowery and grandiloquent text to begin with.
When Trump was first running for President, I found a link to a website that had transcripts of all his interviews on the Howard Stern show. Ignoring the details of what they talked about, the thing that struck me was that his vocabulary and his ability to speak coherently were far better 20 or more years ago (when Ivanka was a teenager).
The problem, as mentioned, is to distinguish when he talks off the cuff versus when reading speeches if you want to compare vocabulary or coherence. There are plenty of sites mocking his rambling stream of consciousness speeches when he’s ad-libbing.
For speechwriters, there may be a more logical explanation - that politicians appear on TV a lot more often than in the days of Kennedy or Reagan, so the writing is aimed at a wider audience, to show someone is “one of the people” not pretentious, whereas decades ago speeches were things more often done on formal occasions and so were more high-falutin’. Since then, politicians get raked over the coals for things like “a thousand points of light…”
came to write the same … methodologically unsound … no president write their speeches themselves
One should take into account only spoken answers in interviews, and even there will probably be a bias …
1970ies interviews would more likely be conversational and not high-stress, whereas
2020ies interviews would be more about accountability and high stress in character … which by itself might have an impact on syntax and vocabulary … (let alone the fact that one as top politician might want to stress/repeat certain words and avoid others altogether)
plus … he now is 40 years older (which by itself will be a huge hit on active vocabulary …
Yes, speeches imply (or in this case require) speechwriters, so these are not unfiltered glimpses into Trump’s brain. A top speechwriter’s job though is to deliver a message that distinctively belongs to that politician for delivery in their recognisable style. From that, you can consider them Trumpian in style, content and choice of words, although only eventually spoken by DT. From the behind-the-scenes footage of him filming adverts he does fuss a lot about specific words and getting them down right.
Second point - some of the most effective speechifying is done by deliberately choosing simple words, trimming any fat or extraneous messages, e.g. some of Churchill’s best known speeches conform to this style of cut-through writing (as well as using words of Anglo-Saxon origin rather than post-Norman ones to enhance that sense of distinction). Complexity and word count aren’t great proxies for effective speeches that will reach the intended audience.
Third point - Trump himself said ‘I know words, I have the best words’ (trigger warning - fuckwit). Maybe the words he doesn’t use just aren’t less good, or possibly socialist or too covfefe.
Speech writing and interview style for politicians is a depressing thing. The rules are for cutting through to the lowest common denominator and getting a point across despite any amount of noise coming in the opposite direction. It is an art and something of a moving target. In isolation the style comes across as both boorish and stupid.
The two recent US presidents with media backgrounds: Reagan and Trump have had a head start in this game.
I would not try to guess Trump’s apparent literacy based on his appearances in the media. One might however judge the level of those he is directing his prose to. That level is the lowest he is targeting.
The full quote from Mencken is apt:
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
It seems that I’m getting the answer I wanted, sort of. While the quote from the other site isn’t absolutely wrong the methodology is suspect and should be taken with a grain of salt. About what I suspected when I read it.
As to blaming it on his speech writers I see a possible problem there. It is possible they have dumb it down so Trump can read them well enough to get through the speech.