On the other hand, a dissection of Trumpian speech patterns suggests that the unusual way he speaks has its roots in oral culture (Golshan, 2016). Are these the output, as many journalists, academics and scientists suggest, of a disordered mind? They’re not sustained arguments but rather a mishmash of disjointed statements that don’t combine into something greater.
On the one hand, Barton Swaim, one-time speechwriter for former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, points out (in Schmitt, 2015) that Trumpian speeches are characterised by broken sentences and bizarre asides. Let’s look at six of the linguistic devices commonly used in Trumpian speech: hyperbole, repetition and intensifiers directness sentence fragments digressions and segues grade level and sales talk. Now, is this deliberate and strategic, or are Trump’s explosive noun phrases, self-interruptions, departures from the theme, flashes of memory and side remarks symptomatic of a person with a concentration problem? Sedensky (2017) points out that Trump’s is “a brand of presidential oratory not previously recorded different from what the public come to expect”. In many ways, he’s used language to create a brand for himself one that leverages a feeling of strength, a sense of determination, and an impression that he can get the job done. Like him or hate him, President Donald Trump is a unique politician because he doesn’t speak like one. Is Trump’s unique brand of presidential oratory deliberate and strategic, is it the disjointed output of a disordered mind, or is it something else?