The Readability and Simplicity of Donald Trump’s Language

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the readability and simplicity of Donald J. Trump’s speech in his media interviews and debates during the 2016 US presidential primary campaign. A total of 10 interviews and debates broadcast on different television networks were analyzed using three of the most commonly used readability formulas: Flesch–Kincaid, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG), and Gunning-Fog. The analysis revealed that a fourth- to fifth-grade level of education (9- to 11-year-olds) is required to understand Trump’s language. In total, 10 additional interviews and debates of other candidates in the presidential election of 2016, from both the Republican and the Democratic parties, were analyzed, using the same readability formulas, in order to shed additional light on Trump’s results. This analysis showed that the average score of all the other candidates was at a ninth-grade level (14- to 15-year-olds). Furthermore, the study reveals that Trump’s sentences and words were significantly shorter and less complex than those of any other candidate. This study suggests that Trump uses low readability and simplicity of language as a rhetorical strategy to gain popularity, in accordance with the trend of anti-intellectualism.

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