6 SPEAKING TECHNIQUES WE CAN LEARN FROM DONALD TRUMP
The other day I listened to a speech by Donald Trump. Although I disagreed with almost everything he said, I couldn’t help but listen. An entire hour went by without me switching off, feeling bored or losing track of what he was talking about. At the end of the speech I could easily remember in great detail all the points he made. This struck me as the secret to his success. Donald Trump might have offensive, incoherent and hollow ideas, but he is definitely someone who knows how to speak to the masses and to get his ideas across whether you agree or disagree with him.
Speaking in general has two elements: substance and form. While Donald Trump’s speaking lacks substance, it has a very powerful form. I researched and analysed Donald Trump’s powerful speaking form and I came up with the following 6 techniques. Hopefully you can use them with meaningful substance to deliver speeches that make a real difference.
1. HE USES SIMPLE LANGUAGE
Perhaps the most powerful tool Donald Trump uses is simplicity. He uses common words, simple sentences and basic logical arguments. In fact he himself reveals this secret in a speech he delivered in Hilton Head, South Carolina on 30 December 2015:
“I am telling you, I used to use the word incompetent, now I just call them stupid. I went to an Ivy League school. I am very highly educated. I know words. I have the best words. But there is no better word than stupid. Right? There is none! There is none!”
I must say Donald Trump is spot on here. The word “incompetent” might be more polite and may have its place in certain circumstances. But the word “stupid” is more emotionally charged and straight to the point. There is indeed no better word than stupid. (Please note that I only agree with Trump’s choice of the word stupid, not with his opinion about his opponents)
How can we apply this to our speaking style?
I am not suggesting that you start dumbing your speaking style down. I am suggesting that you put effort into choosing words and sentences that are simple and at the same time do not weaken the meaning you want to convey. This in fact requires more effort and more intelligence than using long, difficult words and sentences. Remember the famous quote by Leonardo Da Vinci: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”
2. HE BELIEVES WHAT HE SAYS
Donald Trump contradicts himself. He was against the Iraq war but now he wants to take Isis down. At one stage he was in favor of gun control but recently he became totally against it. He’s been very pro-choice and now he is very pro-life when it comes to abortion. Because of this contradiction, many people think that Donald Trump is a liar who would say anything to get more votes. But I think that Donald Trump does believe what he says. At least when he is saying it. Yes he is full of contradictions, but I don’t think he is a liar. In this article, the body language specialist, Darren Stanton, concluded that Donald Trump believes what he says. He said after studying Trump’s gestures: “Even if a person is well-versed in speaking publicly, most of these gestures are unconscious processes – meaning that even if a person were a good liar, it would be very difficult indeed to maintain the behaviour I observed…. Out of the seven channels of communication that I observed, he was consistent in all – therefore I conclude he was making statements that appeared to be consistent with his belief system.
How can we apply this to our speaking style?
Believing our own words is key in connecting with the audience and in making them believe us. Next time you have a speech or a presentation, ask yourself: Do I really believe what I say? Am I really excited about what I am talking about? Do I really care about the topic? You’ll be surprised how many times we realise we are lying to ourselves. Work on finding out what you truly believe in and make it guide your entire speaking style.
3. HE IS NOT AFRAID OF BEING RIDICULED
Perhaps no presidential candidate in the history of the United States has been ridiculed the way Donald Trump has been – his hair style, being short fingered vulgarian, being a buffoon and the list goes on. Yet he seems little if ever affected by all this mockery! This gives him incredible comfort while being on stage which in turn translates into incredible ability to connect with the audience.
You may say that Donald Trump is not affected by all this ridicule because he is a thick skinned narcissist and you would be right. However, I want to make a distinction between the outcome and the cause. The outcome is confidence, the cause is narcissism. Trump is connecting with the audience because he is confident, not because he is a narcissist. Luckily, we can be confident and connect with the audience without being thick skinned narcissists.
How can we apply this to our speaking style?
A major source of fear of public speaking is fear of criticism. When we are afraid of being criticized, we hold back. The audience subconsciously thinks that we have something to hide and may distrust us. Donald Trump on the other hand is not afraid of being ridiculed and therefore he doesn’t hold back. No wonder we hear people saying about him: “He tells it like it is” or “He says what he means”. People are tuning into his confidence despite his narcissism. But as I mentioned above, the keyword here is confidence. Luckily, we can be confident without being narcissistic. Work on reducing your fear of criticism and you will connect with the audience on a whole new level.
4. HE SPEAKS CASUALLY
Donald Trump may not be a sophisticated or an articulate speaker, but he relies on another technique that adds to his appeal – he speaks casually as if he is at a dinner table. This casual style helps him come across as authentic, relatable and human. By not having a script, Donald Trump sends a subtle message to the audience that he is “real”. Many politicians carefully craft their speeches to prevent their words being used against them. By doing so, they come across vague and highly rehearsed. We usually feel confused after a politician speaks. We wonder: Is he with or against raising taxes? Is she with or against climate change policies? With Donald Trump however people feel and relate to every word he says. He may blunder, he may make mistakes and he may contradict himself. But many people forgive him because at least they can understand and feel him.
How can we apply this to our speaking style?
Speaking casually in public requires a lot of experience, confidence and the willingness to make many mistakes. It might not be practical to implement in our speeches, however we can use some of its elements. When writing and practicing a speech, make room for some improvisation. Do not memorise your speech word for word or rehearse it so much that you become robotic. Make sure you allow your real self to come through even at the expense of making some mistakes.
5. HE APPEALS TO EMOTIONS
Many people don’t know this, but a speech is not a spoken article. A speech and an article are two different mediums just as a movie and a book are two different ones. An article is meant to appeal to logic more than to emotions. A speech on the other hand is meant to appeal to emotions more than to logic. I am not saying that a speech is meant to be illogical, what I am saying is that the logical arguments in a speech must be very easy to grasp. When we listen, we don’t have the same mental capacities as when we read. When we listen we have lower attention spans, we don’t have the option to go back and read the last sentence and we don’t have the time to think things through. We want the ideas to be simply grasped without much thinking on our behalf.
Donald Trump understands this concept very well and he uses it to perfection. He doesn’t bore the audience with figures and numbers, instead he appeals to their emotions. His preferred methods are: anecdotes, repetition and appealing to social proof. Half way through a sentence Trump may interrupt himself with an anecdote about how he sold Miss Universe and made a lot of money. He keeps repeating himself over and over again about how he is a billionaire, or how he is the only candidate that funds his own campaign. And lastly he almost always appeals to social proof when proving a point. His favourite phrases are: “everyone knows”, “everybody told me”, etc.
Here is an excerpt from his speech “Our Country Needs a Truly Great Leader” in which he uses all three methods in one sentence: Anecdote, repetition and appealing to social proof.
“I watch the speeches of these people, and they say the sun will rise, the moon will set, all sorts of wonderful things will happen. And people are saying, “What’s going on? I just want a job. Just get me a job. I don’t need the rhetoric. I want a job.”
How can we apply this to our speaking style?
Donald Trump’s appeal to emotions may come across as manipulative, but that doesn’t mean that all appeal to emotions is manipulative. We can still appeal to emotions while being ethical. When writing, practicing and delivering a speech, remember that a speech is not a spoken article. Reduce the number of statistics and figures and increase the number of stories and anecdotes. A speech is a different medium to an article. Make sure you treat it as one.
6. HE HAS PERFECTED THE USE OF PUNCHY SENTENCES
Almost every sentence Donald Trump uses is a punch line. He does so by making sure he ends his sentences with strong words. In this video, Evan Puschak highlights how Donald Trump may even resort to using grammatically incorrect sentences to make them end with a strong word. For example, while answering a question by Jimmy Kimmel, Donald Trump says:
“You know, you can’t solve the problem until you know what’s the root cause.”
Evan argues that a more grammatically correct sentence would be:
“You know, you can’t solve the problem until you know what the root cause is”.
Trump rearranged the sentence and ended it with the word “root cause” to make it sound more punchy.
How can we apply this to our speaking style?
I am not suggesting that we use grammatically incorrect sentences to make our sentences punchy. Nor am I suggesting that we adopt Trump’s style in making almost every sentence end with a strong word. What I am saying is to be aware of this fact. When you write a speech, take note of the structure of your sentences and check whether you can rearrange some words to make them more punchy.
For example when I was writing a speech titled: “Where is Your Accent From” I wanted to say how multicultural Australia allowed me to build a friendship with someone from Israel (and I am from Syria!). At first I wrote the sentence as follows:
“Had it not been for multicultural Australia, our friendship would have died before it was born.”
However I tweaked it a little to make it more punchy as follows:
“Had it not been for multicultural Australia, our friendship would have been born dead.”
You can see how the second sentence is punchier as it ends with a stronger word. This was the sentence that made it to the final version of the speech as you can imagine. You can watch the speech here.
As I mentioned in the beginning of the article, there are two elements to speaking: substance and form. While Donald Trump’s speaking lacks substance, it has a very powerful form. We can either shun his speaking style altogether, or we can use his powerful form and add to it our meaningful substance to deliver speeches that make a real difference.
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