Why Does Trump Do That Weird Capitalization Thing? Experts Dissect His Language Patterns.

Is the former president a skilled orator or a relentless yapper? Here's what linguists think.

Reading a typical Truth Social post from former President Donald Trump is a wild ride, rhetorically speaking: There’s name-calling, naturally, and the ALL-CAPS DECLARATIVES about how weak his enemies are. Then there’s the other weird thing the former president does with capitalization, where he caps the beginning of words for seemingly no good reason.

This post-debate missive from his Truth Social feed is a good example. Note the random capitalization of the “Radical Left Candidate,” “Second Debate,” and “destroyed our Country.”

Trump doesn’t save his odd linguistic choices for social media; he’s got a unique way of speaking, too, including a habit of referencing huge, abstract figures: “Millions and millions.” “Billions and billions.” (In 2017, Vice was able to cobble together a two-minute compilation of all the times Trump said “billions and billions” ― think of how long it would be now!)

There’s also his sweeping use of “everyone” and “everybody.” The times he’s claimed “everyone agrees” are almost too numerous to count.

And we wrote a whole story about his use of the third person: “They all want the endorsement of Trump,” he said of his political influence in 2021. “It’s a very important treasure.”