DONALD Trump was “too relaxed” during his chat with Elon Musk leading to his mysterious new “lisp”, claims a top speech expert.
Political presentation coach Graham Davies – who helped tutor ex-UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – broke down the odd vocal tick that Trump appeared to develop during his pally chat with the X boss.
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Mr Davis told The Sun that the Republican needs to be “extremely careful” going into the next few months of debates to ensure slurred speech doesn’t become a trademark of his campaign.
On Monday evening Trump and his new pal Musk spoke on an X Spaces chat as the former president fired barbs at his two political rivals incumbent Joe Biden and new Democrat candidate Kamala Harris.
In the two-hour talk he also touched on the chilling assassination attempt on his life last month.
And he delved into the war in Ukraine, his diplomatic relationships with global despots and immigration policies.
read more in Trump and Musk
But the friendly interview was overshadowed as listeners noticed a baffling “lisp” coming from Trump.
His campaign have sought to dismiss it, and others have speculated audio issues – but the veteran political speech expert Mr Davies had another theory, that Trump was simply “too relaxed”.
Political presentation coach Graham Davies, who worked with the UK’s now-ousted PM Mr Sunak as he made his way into Number 10, picked up on the odd verbal tick within seconds.
Davies says it may have been down to Trump having a trusted Musk as his interviewer – with the normally punchy and skewering Donald feeling relaxed as if he was around a dear friend.
He told The Sun: “This was a chat between Donald Trump and one of his best mates, his biggest fan, and his most powerful supporter.
“That doesn’t really bring out the best in Trump because it allowed him to ramble all over the place and to relax a little bit too much.
“And when he relaxes his voice he always relaxes as well.
“And that, I believe, is the main factor in the way a sort of slur appeared in some of his words.”
It wasn’t the right forum for him. He allowed himself just to speak and ramble and so that meant that he relaxed too much
Graham Davies
Davies, who has decades of experience in the art of public speaking, says big voices like politicians tend to perform better on the biggest and toughest of stages.
The coach, who has also worked with Boris Johnson and Sajid Javid, says casual conversations can often bring out certain tendencies in people – such as verbal ticks.
Trump has a long history of giving passionate speeches at his rallies where he speaks with a strong and clear tone.
But during Monday’s chat his powerful voice appeared to disappear as he sat rambling into his phone alongside his advisers.
Davies continued: “It wasn’t the right forum for him.
“He allowed himself just to speak and ramble and so that meant that he relaxed too much.
“He really needs to make sure that he’s not only mentally focused, but he’s physically focused on the way that the words come out.
“Because he wasn’t that focused, they came out in rather a slurred way.”
Social media users were quick to jump on the Republican and discuss his apparent newfound speech impediment by sharing clips and comments.
Some of the most evident times were when the presidential nominee used words beginning or ending with “s” such as “she” or “millions”.
The odd-sounding inflection also popped up when he labelled his political foe Kamala Harris as “incompetent”.
After being quizzed for his voice by social media sleuths Trump’s campaign was quick to hit back at the concerns, telling the Daily Beast, “Must be your ears.”
Trump’s audio has also raised concerns that he could be falling towards similar health issues as current president Joe Biden.
Biden was drummed out of the race after he was pasted by Trump during their first – and only – debate.
The 81-year-old appeared confused at times and mumbled through his verbal battle with the much more agile Trump.
It hammered home months of questions about his cognitive ability – and brought a crashing end to his campaign, with him quickly dropping out and being replaced by Harris.
But now – the boot is on the other foot, and Trump, 78, is going up against a much younger rival – with Kamala being only 59.
Davies said: “Now that Joe Biden has retired from the race Donald Trump is the oldest candidate.
“He must make sure that nothing he says, or the way he says it could possibly play into and encourage the narrative of him going into cognitive decline.
“This is an aspect he has to be extremely careful of from now on.”
Insiders have speculated the the Republicans were wrong-footed by Biden’s decision to drop out after months of wargaming to take down Joe.
And now they are having to deal with a much different opponent in Harris and her choice of VP, Tim Walz.
Trump was described as a “wounded animal striking out in all directions” in the chat.
With him repeating his greatest hits from slamming Biden to commentating on Harris’s appearance.
Davies warned the “the Trump ramble won’t work against somebody as focused as Kamala Harris”.
He must make sure that nothing he says, or the way he says it could possibly play into and encourage the narrative of him going into cognitive decline
Graham Davies
Listeners also speculated the unusual speech pattern was down to an audio issue with the microphones.
Some noted Elon also suffered at times with technical woes and this was just one of many issues before and during their chat.
The friendly interview was plunged into chaos before it even kicked off with frantic X users reporting blank screens and notifications which read, “Spaces is not available” as they tried to join the stream.
An estimated 28,000 X users were hit with the “crash”.
After 40 minutes of struggling, Musk admitted the cause of the problem was a “massive DDOS attack” as the chat started.
Distributed denial of service (DDOS) is a cyberattack in which hackers flood a server with internet traffic to prevent users from accessing connected online services and sites, say Fortinet.
Broadcast expert Susan Bookbinder also told The Sun the interview was an attempt at drumming up support for Trump’s political campaign.
She said that Trump will be trying to “claw back” support after a seemingly successful social media campaign of Kamala Harris.
“Musk trying to reinvigorate his social media platform, X as it loses the battle for GenZ users,” she said.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s complicated relationship
FORMER president Donald Trump and Telsla CEO Elon Musk’s relationship started rocky, but the pair have since reconciled, with Musk fully endorsing Trump and interviewing him on X Spaces on August 12.
In 2022, Elon Musk and Donald Trump publically feuded on X, then still known as Twitter.
Trump called Musk a liar and “bulls**t artist” during a rally in Alaska.
“Elon is not going to buy Twitter,” Trump said at the time.
“You know, he said the other day, ‘I’ve never voted for a Republican.’ I said, ‘I didn’t know that – you told me you voted for me. So he’s another bulls**t artist, but he’s not going to be buying it.”
In response to Trump’s critiques, the SpaceX founder clapped back.
“I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset,” Musk posted.
Musk also went on to buy X months later.
The X owner said he had previously voted mostly for Democrats since becoming a United States citizen in 2002.
However, when the 2024 election rolled around, he endorsed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Trump’s rival.
“My preference for the 2024 presidency is someone sensible and centrist,” Musk wrote on X in 2022.
“I had hoped that would [be] the case for the Biden administration, but have been disappointed so far.”
His shift in political parties might be attributed to his plummeting relationship with President Joe Biden who didn’t invite Musk to the 2021 White House electric vehicle summit.
Despite their past issues, Trump and Musk’s relationship took a turn in March after they met at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump was also previously against electric vehicles but has since changed his stance.
“I’m for electric cars,” he said at a rally earlier this month.
“I have to be, because Elon endorsed me very strongly. So I have no choice.”
Following the assassination attempt at Trump’s rally in July, Musk announced his support for the former president.
“I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk wrote on X after the shooting.
During a recent press conference, Trump spoke highly of Musk.
“I respect Elon a lot. He respects me,” he said.
“Elon, more than almost anybody I know, he loves this country. He loves the concept of this country, but like me, he says this country is in big trouble, it’s in tremendous danger.”
Their conversation comes after the SpaceX founder endorsed Trump in the 2024 election after an attempted assassination at his Pennsylvania rally on July 13.
Trump was grazed in the ear by a bullet shot by gunman Thomas Crooks, who was later shot dead by the Secret Service.
Bullets from Crook’s gun also killed an attendee and left two others severely injured.
Though the pair have had a rocky relationship, Musk shared he would “fully endorse President Trump” this year.
Social media consultant Matt Navarra spoke to The U.S. Sun about this budding relationship between Trump and Musk.
He called it a “marriage of convenience.”
“I think Trump needs the audience and engagement that X can provide from the distribution and reach that X gives him,” Navarra said.
“And I think that Musk wants to make sure he aligns himself with the potential winning candidate for the upcoming presidential election.”
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