Vice President JD Vance has made a bold assertion, claiming that President Donald Trump is hated because he “chooses his words carefully.” The remark, posted on Elon Musk’s X, was meant to contrast Trump’s leadership style with what Vance called Washington’s obsession with talking over doing.
“The reason the failed establishment hates President Donald J Trump is because he chooses his words carefully and, more importantly, is much more focused on doing,” Vance wrote.
Trump has certainly been busy since taking office, signing over 70 executive orders—a 40-year record as of Feb. 20. But is he really measured in his speech?
Trump’s history of unfiltered remarks
Linguists and fact-checkers suggest otherwise. Geoffrey Pullum, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, once described Trump’s communication style as “pure chaos,” while Columbia University’s John McWhorter likened it to the speech patterns of a “drunk person” despite Trump’s lifelong abstinence from alcohol.
Even Macron fact-checked Trump in real-time at the White House this week. When Trump claimed the US had provided $350 billion to Ukraine, the French president corrected him, saying, “No, in fact, to be frank, we paid 60 percent of the total effort. It was real money.”
Trump’s response? A smirk and, in what some might call careful wording, “If you believe that, it’s OK with me.”
Meanwhile, PolitiFact’s “Truth-O-Meter” has already flagged two of Trump’s claims as false this month alone.