Fake news and how to fake it

Donald Trump and his spokespeople have been responsible for adding some indelible phrases to our lexicon. Two of the more famous, or infamous, are fake news and alternative facts.

Both illustrate that Mr Trump has a grasp of language, its utilisation and its populist effect. However, whilst he has mastered the use of language he has not yet—and never will—master the language itself.

Examples of that are the spelling mistakes, the grammar errors and the prolific use of redundancies such as “very”—something or somebody is either smart or not smart; very smart is an unnecessary inflection that portrays and betrays a person prone to oversell.

However, those are nuances that a large part of Trump’s constituency neither know nor care about. The bluff and bluster of a typical Trump speech is what they want to hear and if truth and facts are not invited guests at that particular feast we hardly note their absence. Trump knows that and knows his audience doesn’t care. He can say what he likes, and he knows he will get away with it.

But that is content not delivery. Trump’s verbiage, if subjected to a scrutiny beyond the capability of the MAGA brigade, shows a man who has lost control of that most precious of commodities—language.
Listen to him closely: his speeches, most often unscripted, are closer to rants than measured discourse. Words pour from him like a waterfall—unchecked, unmodulated and—although at least going in the same direction—uncontrolled.

I believe Trump does not know what he is saying while he is saying it and having said it has no recall of what he said.

You may disagree. You may say he is a (very) clever man—a master manipulator.

No, he isn’t.

I spent fifty years in advertising; I have worked with politicians for much of my life and I have a nerdy passion for great speeches. I know master manipulators.

Trump is not one, believe me.

Trump is dumb. Genuinely dumb.

Trump in whatever he portrays, or is perceived as, is faking it.

He is his own fake news.

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