2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Linguist: It's not "word-salad". Trump is a skilled orator and manipulator of the subconscious. [View all]anneboleyn
(5,611 posts)that is something he learned from someone in the business community as he is definitely not a master of language in any sense. The simplistic, constant repetition of key terms in patterns of three is a way to plant an idea, to persuade people who aren't very intelligent, who aren't going to notice that a person speaking to them keeps repeating certain concepts they want to sell three times (and it is ALWAYS three times).
I started noticing it back during the primaries, and it is very apparent in his media appearances and rallies. Whatever stupid notion he is trying to sell he will repeat three times in a row, "powerful," "powerful," "powerful." I am actually surprised that we haven't heard more parodies of it because it is SO transparent. That is his favorite gimmick in addition to the old sales technique of saying "You know that we need x" to the person or persons to whom he is speaking as a cheap attempt to convince them that they agree with his proposal and even thought of it before he proposed it, "You know we need a wall, citizen x, you know it right? You know it. I will build a wall and it will be powerful. It will be a powerful wall. Powerful."