(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) For years, members of the leftist media attempted to gloss over President Joe Biden’s obvious cognitive disabilities by claiming he had developed a late-onset stutter.
The problem, which Biden said had plagued him as a boy, disappeared for much of his five-decade political career, only to return with the arrival of his second childhood.
Now, many of the same leftist shills are inventing a speech impediment for former President Donald Trump, as well.
Only, this time, they are not concocting it to protect the GOP presidential nominee from criticism.
Instead, it is part of a sad and desperate effort to ridicule Trump—in much the same way that they previously invented the “Project 2025” boogeyman and a bizarrely bogus claim that Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, engaged in sex acts with a sofa.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2024
THE TWEETER-IN-CHIEF RETURNS
During Trump’s casual conversation with Elon Musk via the X Spaces platform on Monday, many on the Left planned a “blackout.”
Nonetheless the pair of affluent, red-pilled ex-liberals, both on a mission to “Make America Great Again” while staving off a socialist takeover, drew in a record-breaking audience of around 73 million, which has since been amplified to yield a reach of more than a billion people, according to Musk.
Combined views of the conversation with @realDonaldTrump and subsequent discussion by other accounts now ~1 billion https://t.co/s8x8QmdmnY
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
It was a notable feat for the nearly two-hour event—which was admittedly more subdued than many of Trump’s rallies, debates, interviews and press conferences—made all the more impressive by virtue of the fact that an apparent hacker attack nearly derailed the much-hyped chat and delayed the start by roughly an hour.
Trump’s campaign subsequently recapped nine key moments from the “historic” meetup, which marked a rare return to the platform that he relied on for much of his first presidential term to bypass the media gatekeepers and take his message directly to the people.
The highlights included Trump’s candid discussion of last month’s assassination attempt and his reflections about his relationships with hostile world leaders such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
PRESIDENT TRUMP:
I told Putin, "Don't do it!" — and I told him what I'd do if he did.
He said, "No way."
I said, "WAY."
🔥🔥🔥#TrumpOnXpic.twitter.com/pCnkHDquZg
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 13, 2024
MEDIA MELTDOWN
Predictably, Trump-bashing leftists in the media, who have undertaken an all-hands-on-deck propaganda push to astroturf newly anointed Democrat candidate Kamala Harris into public favor, opted to viciously attack Trump’s appearance with hot take after hot take.
A wall of negative headlines was so predictable. They’re such NPCs 🤣🤣
All this does is drive even more people to listen to the conversation themselves and realize how much the legacy media lies to them! https://t.co/DkvsKn2C7A
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
Although most of these attacks homed in on some superficiality while making no note of the substance of the discussion, none seemed as petty as the attempts to claim that Trump was speaking throughout the interview with a lisp.
Suffering succotash! https://t.co/MgjvhfR7x9
— Rex Bossert (@rbossert) August 13, 2024
The same group that collectively insisted Biden was “sharp as a tack” has now persuaded itself through the power of groupthink that Trump was either channeling a Looney Tunes character or plagued by loose dentures.
Meanwhile, the Kamala Harris campaign appeared to pounce on another strategy altogether, suggesting Trump—who does not drink—was “slurring” his words.
Trump, slurring, says he’s okay with climate change and rising sea levels because he thinks he’ll “have more oceanfront property” pic.twitter.com/AmdrdXCn0v
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 13, 2024
The projection was likely an effort to get in front of the widespread rumors regarding Harris’s own alleged alcoholism and substance-abuse issues, using a popular Saul Alinsky tactic to accuse her rival of her own vulnerabilities in order to neutralize any future opposition research on the matter.
Kamala’s alcoholism … is she an alcoholic? Is that the reason for her word salads?
Same exact mannerisms as vodka Pelosi.
You know what to do with this one! pic.twitter.com/8qPRT3ljAU
— Sheri™ (@FFT1776) July 24, 2024
According to the BBC, the terms “slurring” and “dentures” both trended during the feed, generating thousands of comments on X as Democrats who had vowed to boycott the site came forward to confess they had secretly been listening in.
The Trump campaign, however, dismissed the purported lisp as an audio issue, the Daily Mail noted.
“Must be your s****y hearing,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung told the Huffington Post’s S.V. Dáte. “Get your ears checked.”
I asked the Trump campaign why the coup-attempting criminal former president is slurring his words and lisping. The campaign's response: pic.twitter.com/M2H6hLFFyJ
— S.V. Dáte (@svdate) August 13, 2024
Indeed, the audio illusion may call to mind the famous “Yanny” versus “Laurel” debate that took place in 2018, where listeners heard something entirely different depending on the frequency range their ears were attuned to.
WILLING AND ABLEIST
Regardless of whether the Democrats’ lisp assertion was valid or simply the latest example of mass formation psychosis triggered by Trump Derangement Syndrome, the response underscored left-wing hypocrisy by making impedimented Americans the butt of their joke.
It marked a sharp contrast with the feeding-frenzy response to Trump allegedly imitating New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from the joint disease arthrogryposis.
Many Democrats continue to push the talking point that Trump was poking fun at Kovaleski’s disability, although there is no evidence to support the baseless claim.
Flashback to when Trump mocked disabled New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski. Kovaleski suffers from a debilitating congenital joint condition. Trump flailed his arms in an apparent attempt to imitate mannerisms of the “poor guy.” pic.twitter.com/PW3qvmqfTc
— BC v.1 (@Piston711926949) August 8, 2024
But only a few in the leftist press, including the Independent’s Marc Burrows, warned that the move to mock Trump’s supposed lisp may backfire.
“Those of us on the political left often pride ourselves in being the ‘good guys.’ We think we’re better than the other side: They’re nasty. We’re nice,'” Burrows contended.
“Yet here we are, mocking a man for his speech patterns rather than engaging with the substance of his words,” he added. “It’s a dangerous game, one that not only distracts from the real issues at hand … but also reinforces harmful stereotypes about those with speech differences.”
Not only might the attacks on lisps be seen as a pernicious form of ableism, but they might also promote ageism and homophobia, victimizing even more identity groups that Democrats are relying on to drag them across the finish line in November.
“We’ve championed inclusivity and fought against stigma,” chided Burrows. “To turn around and mock someone for a speech impediment—regardless of who that person is—undermines those efforts and exposes a troubling double standard.”
RELIVING THE TRAUMA
The mockery seemed particularly sinister given the recent attempt on Trump’s life by an unhinged Democrat donor during a rally last month in Butler, Pa.
Although Trump survived the assassination attempt relatively unscathed, execpt for a mangled and bloody ear, he is likely still processing the internal trauma.
According to the world-renowned Mayo Clinic, dysarthria—a weakening of the speech muscles that “often causes slurred or slow speech that can be difficult to understand” may be brought about by “head injury.”
Others have linked stress and trauma to language development in children, and some have cited stuttering as a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Instead of allowing the person to heal, the memories serve only to re-arouse the person to a level that they feel they must defend against them, and the avoidance begins,” wrote researchers Woody Starkweather and Janet Givens. “Eventually the defensive avoidance behaviors become habitual, and the person’s life is fundamentally altered.”
During the Republican National Convention, Trump acknowledged that he was continuing to come to grips with the terrifying experience, which resulted in the death of rallygoer Corey Comperatore.
“I will tell you exactly what happened, and you’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s actually too painful to tell,” he said at the time.
Yet, during recent rallies and in the conversation with Musk, he proceeded to recount the “surreal” moments in vivid detail, revealing that his miraculous survival had helped to strengthen his faith in God.
“A lot of people don’t believe in God … Now, I’m more of a believer,” Trump confided to Musk.
President Trump on the assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania:
"One of the miracles was that nobody ran."#TrumpOnXpic.twitter.com/wWcxTBKVZi
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 13, 2024
Just last week, the beleaguered candidate—who has been subjected to repeated lawfare attacks and even media smear campaigns accusing him of being “weird”—endured another death-defying experience as his plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Montana.
Despite quietly suffering the slings and arrows of the remarkably brutal campaign—without bowing out mid-race as Biden did—Trump continues to put the American people ahead of his own well-being.
“This is so much more important than me or my life,” he poignantly told Musk. “We’re gonna save this country.”
“This is so much more important than me or my life — we’re gonna save this country.”
— President Donald J. Trump 🔥#TrumpOnX pic.twitter.com/DnBWHegpmo
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 13, 2024
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/realbensellers.
