One of the most revealing things about modern political speech is reading level.

Linguists often analyze speeches using the Flesch–Kincaid readability scale, which estimates the grade level needed to understand the language.

When researchers compare recent presidents, the gap is striking:

Obama: roughly 9th–11th grade

Biden: roughly 7th–9th grade

Trump: roughly 3rd–5th grade

But Trump’s speeches are not just simpler.

They follow a completely different pattern.

Trump does not occasionally lie. He never tells the truth.

Everything he says is contrary to evidence.

The language itself is the technique.

Short sentences. Tiny vocabulary. Constant repetition.

This isn’t meant to convey information.

It’s meant to overwrite reality.

George Orwell described the same mechanism in 1984: repeat something often enough and language itself becomes a tool of control.

I call it Trump-washing.

It isn’t communication.

It’s conditioning.

Trump doesn’t communicate. He conditions.