I believe President Trump “dumbs down” his vocabulary for the public. I don’t mean that as he is condescending, just that when he speaks to the general public he insures he is understood.
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generally wrote:
Excellent point. But where I notice it the most is when he speaks.
Perhaps this is all a tempest in a teapot and he has always spoken like this, but when the 2016 primary first started heating up, Trump’s use of simple vocabulary was one of the first things my ear noticed. If I had time, I’d scour old tapes of Trump interviews and try to get a feel for differences between then and now. If I had a TON of time, I’d write some software to analyze speech difference for me.
BTW, changes in speech habits can signal brain changes. I am NOT saying that Trump has dementia or anything. Just pointing out a fact. The example I recall was an analysis of Agatha Christie. Her vocabulary became much more limited in her last few novels. And IIRC her plots became much more vague. You can probably find a discussion of that somewhere on the internet.
Aside from his odd (to me) vocabulary, nothing about Trump strikes me as if he were mentally impaired. Quite the contrary. And I have 3 possible explanations for the vocabulary.
I think he developed that style during the Apprentice. That’s where I think he perfected the persona that he rode all the way to the White House.