When you ask people why they do not support President Donald Trump you will receive a variety of responses. Reasons for disliking him may include his disparaging remarks against women, his hardline immigration policies, or his lack of transparency with regard to his potential business conflicts. Trump is such a flawed character who adopts such extreme public policies that it is difficult to settle on one or even a handful of major reasons to dislike him. People with whom I have discussed the topic of Trump often have so much ire against him they have a different set of complaints each time I ask! I will state one major reason I disapprove of Trump as a choice to be President, which I hope other people share with me. That reason is simply the way he speaks.
Unlike a predecessor, President George W. Bush, President Trump has no endearing qualities to counterbalance his ignorance. At least Bush II had a likable personality. He had an "aw shucks," down-home way about him. So when he struggled with the English language or looked visibly uncomfortable in front of the press corps after being asked a straightforward question, he was still relatable even to those of us on the political left. Bush tried hard to put together a coherent speech even if it was riddled with gaffes. Despite the aircraft carrier and 9/11 photo ops, which every politician would exploit, Bush did not try to be the center of attention.
Trump, on the other hand, does not even (indeed, does not even feel the need to) compose and execute a coherent speech. Trump speaks in short, disjointed sentences, using hyperbolic adjectives like "teriffic!" and "horrible!" and vague adverbs like "very, very." Throughout his speeches he constantly refers to himself, the crowd sizes who have come to see him, and his personal connections to others who like him. And he has no endearing qualities to offset these (terrible!) communication techniques.
The key to understanding Trump's speeches, and why I believe he has conned so many people into following him, is that you must listen to or watch the speeches to get the mood and spirit. If you sympathize with the policies he proposes and you are captivated by the mood and spirit of his speeches, you will follow him, regardless of whether the content of the speeches makes sense when read in a transcript or whether the contents is based on fact.
A perfect example of a completely incoherent, bumbling Trump speech can be seen in his address to the CIA last week. Please take a moment to read it. If you do not shake your head, you are a die hard Trump supporter!
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-cia-speech-transcript/
Here is just one paragraph out of the entire speech. Trump is talking about Mike Pompeo, the person he has chosen to lead the CIA. Pompeo was a graduate of West Point. This is what Trump said:
Now, I know a lot about West Point. I’m a person that very strongly believes in academics. In fact, every time I say I had an uncle who was a great professor at MIT for 35 years who did a fantastic job in so many different ways, academically -- was an academic genius -- and then they say, is Donald Trump an intellectual? Trust me, I’m like a smart person. (Laughter.) And I recognized immediately. So he was number one at West Point, and he was also essentially number one at Harvard Law School. And then he decided to go into the military. And he ran for Congress. And everything he’s done has been a homerun. People like him, but much more importantly to me, everybody respects him. And when I told Paul Ryan that I wanted to do this, I would say he may be the only person that was not totally thrilled -- right, Mike? Because he said, I don’t want to lose this guy.
Why does Trump feel the need to say he "believes in academics?"
What does his uncle being an MIT professor have to do with this statement or Mike Pompeo?
How can someone "essentially" be number one at Harvard Law School?
How can "everything" someone has done be a home run?
Does "everybody" respect Mike Pompeo?
This is just one paragraph.
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