How Should We Decipher Trumpspeak?

calamity said:

Trump has a gift that somehow lets each listener hear what he wants to hear when he speaks. It's probably a requirement when swinging billion-dollar deals with other people's money.

When he speaks, I hear a big government liberal promising to rebuild the cities and bring back manufacturing jobs. Others hear a small government conservative who will make America Great again by tough talk and using sound principles. We can't both be right.

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Come to think of it, that was Obama's talent, too.

Mr Person said:

So what are we supposed to do?

Ignore everything he says and tweets and hope the rest of the world does the same? Hope that if he says a bunch of insane bull****, he doesn't actually mean it?

Blind faith? Sorry, but international relations and policy making just don't work that way. That's religion you're thinking of.



(Or, as has already been pointed out, do we just rely on posters such as yourself to try to translate a Trump statement from Angry Retard into something approximating English?)





Nevermind that for the last eight years, I've seen every last pause and hiccup from Obama taken as if it were a harbinger of doom. And of course, dishonest and laughable outrage, like the many disputes about whether the words "act of terror" meant something different from "terrorist act", grammar be damned......

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I suppose it all depends on whether you trust that Trump wants the best for Americans. If you think of him as this evil monster then naturally you're not going to be charitable in your interpretation of what he says. Trump supporters tend to trust him because no one else has put out any effort at all to give them some hope for a better future, least of all Trump's opponent in the election.

To be clear, people who think Trump is an evil monster are not going to put anything he says in a good light no matter how clear and straightforward it is. It's just going to be bad faith all the way.

Lord Tammerlain said:

Exactly

Take the meaning of what I said, provided it is what you want to believe I said, rather then what I actually said

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Fact of the matter is, as bad and exaggerated as Trump talks, you could take lessons from him on proper messaging. Bigly.

The correct usage would be the word "than" rather than "then", btw. Then has to do with time or chronology. Than is used to show an exception or to compare/contrast.

RickJames3000 said:

You proved nothing about anything. You weren't even on topic.
Dismissed.

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Ignoring reality, facts and the obvious seems a penchant of nearly everyone on the left. If it were a disease, and perhaps it is, we would have to label it a pandemic, so rife is it within the liberal community.

LowDown said:

I suppose it all depends on whether you trust that Trump wants the best for Americans. If you think of him as this evil monster then naturally you're not going to be charitable in your interpretation of what he says. Trump supporters tend to trust him because no one else has put out any effort at all to give them some hope for a better future, least of all Trump's opponent in the election.

To be clear, people who think Trump is an evil monster are not going to put anything he says in a good light no matter how clear and straightforward it is. It's just going to be bad faith all the way.

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There are only two choices, then?

(A) Evil Monster

(B) Wants the best for Americans

LowDown said:

His supporters seem to understand him well enough.

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They think they do. He changes what he says constantly

People with maturity above a 5 year old will need a translator. Guess we better start interviewing 5 year olds for the job

LowDown said:

In short, you take him seriously but not literally, which is what his supporters do. His detractors did exactly the opposite -- literally but not seriously -- and he wore their disdain, the disdain of the mainstream press and of the elites, as a badge of honor. It made him all that much more authentic and credible out in the hinterlands.

But he really should learn to be more careful and precise when he speaks now that he's going to be the President.

Donald Trump's Tweets & Statements: Take Them Seriously but Not Literally? | National Review

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I prefer to phrase it that I take what he says figuratively, i.e. how he sees the ideal or what he sees the goals and objectives to be, but don't take his words literally because he is often just thinking out loud. I do that too and often go through several different phases of decisions before I arrive at where I want to be.

Those who oppose and/or dislike or hate him take everything he says, every facial expression, every nuance 100% literally and then when his point of view evolves beyond that point, they accuse him of lying.

Those of us who have been more pragmatic and realistic in this election cycle have seen that he is not even trying to be PC or a politician or literal but is just having a conversation with us that conveys that he understands what we are thinking and feeling, why we are angry or frustrated, and what we hope can happen. So his sometimes disjointed or half sentences are from the heart, unscripted, unrehearsed, and are just as we often speak one on one with each other.

On the other hand, when he NEEDS to be serious, when he is making a serious policy statement, we see the polished, professional businessman with his wits about him and very precise in his language and content. I would expect no less of him when conducting official business as President of the United States.

But when he is just having a conversation with we the people, I suspect he is still going to be Trump marching to his own drum and not as others require him to be.