Also, Mr. Obama had much less room to be “authentic.” Mr. Trump has the privilege of talking as he pleases with no concern for how he sounds. Linguistically, it’s less that Mr. Trump deliberately pulled something off than that he didn’t have to even try to do anything beyond the ordinary. Imagine Mr. Romney or John McCain trying to get any music out of “Yes, we can!” the way Mr. Obama did. This is why Keegan-Michael Key’s “anger translator” routine with President Obama at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in 2015 worked so well. And trained to hear politicians this way, the reporter and the pundit assume that Mr. Trump is “speaking” rather than talking.

Source: New York Times January 21, 2017 19:16 UTC