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

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.”

What do all these peccadillos of speech mean, if anything? Leaving the obvious lies and exaggerations aside, is he just blithely ignorant of language conventions, another Boomer fond of the caps lock, or is he consciously crafting these messages to look and sound the way they do?

Some experts believe Trump genuinely does use language and style as a weapon, including Jennifer Mercieca, a professor in the department of communication and journalism at Texas A&M University and the author of “Demagogue for President: The