Former President Donald Trump‘s reading abilities have been put into question in both political and entertainment circles. Now, a new account by comedian Pete Davison adds some more evidence to Trump’s literary challenges.
In 2018, Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury brought attention to Trump’s reading habits with a quote by economic adviser Gary Cohn, stating, “It’s worse than you can imagine … Trump won’t read anything—not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers, nothing.” The book also suggests that Trump’s staff had to adapt their communication methods to suit his preferences. National Security Council members were instructed to keep policy papers to a single page and include lots of graphics and maps. Briefers strategically placed Trump’s name in multiple paragraphs of documents to maintain his attention.
While Wolff’s accuracy has been questioned, Trump’s limited vocabulary and teleprompt aversion have also raised questions about his reading skills. For instance, a study by Factba.se analyzed Trump’s first 30,000 words spoken in office, comparing them to previous presidents since 1929. The results indicated that Trump speaks at a third- to seventh-grade reading level, lower than any other president in the study. His vocabulary and grammatical structure were found to be “significantly more simple and less diverse.”
Davison’s story, then, doesn’t raise a new issue about Trump’s competence. Still, it illustrates how Trump’s reading difficulties go about being official communication.
Donald Trump became the butt of the joke behind the scenes of Saturday Night Live
Davidson’s anecdote vividly illustrates Trump’s alleged reading difficulties. The comedian observed Trump during his 2015 SNL appearance when the Republican was a presidential candidate. In an interview that has just gone viral, Davidson talks about Trump’s difficulties in properly interpreting punctuation and how the former President used any excuse to avoid his lines and improvise whatever came to his mind.
For instance, during a sketch shooting, Trump reportedly struggled with a line about “turkey legs” at Disneyland. Instead of reading, “Alright, let’s get out of here. Turkey legs?” (implying they were going to get the snack), Trump allegedly said, “Alright, let’s get out of here, turkey legs,” inadvertently calling his daughter by that name.
In a different 2018 interview, Davidson also shared the story of how Trump faked a phone call in the middle of an SNL reading table, seemingly to avoid reading aloud from the script and try to boost his ego with fake claims about his success.
It’s fair to say Trump is not illiterate. After all, he holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Still, it’s curious as new observations underline Trump’s apparent aversion to printed words and visible proof of his incoherence continues to crop up.