Trump’s Gettysburg Address

A look inside the decaying mind of the Republican presidential nominee

Trump’s tangent about the Battle of Gettysburg at a rally in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania on April 13 has become a meme known simply as “Gettysburg, Wow” or as “Trump’s Gettysburg Address.”

Watch the clip and laugh if you must. In reality, it’s terrifying. As my colleague, Dr. John Gartner, renowned psychologist and former Johns Hopkins Medical School Professor put it, “Gettysburg wasn’t a rambling speech, it was demented.”

Let’s take a look at this alarming moment where the Trump train goes off the rails:

Here is the transcription of minute 54 of Trump’s recorded speech. As long as he reads his speech off the teleprompter (ostensibly meant to impress his audience with his knowledge of history and admiration for Pennsylvania), his words were coherent: “…where the Army weathered its brutal winter at Valley Forge, where General George Washington led his men on a daring mission across the Delaware, and where our Union was saved by the immortal heroes at Gettysburg.”

At 54:24 he pauses. Does he lose patience with reading, as described in this article in The Atlantic? Or, is he triggered by the words “immortal heroes,” and thinks of himself? It’s at this moment that his eyes appear to leave the teleprompter and he transports himself into his own Gettysburg. Following are the full remarks. It’s worth reading through in entirety once and then we’ll unpack it.

“Our nation was saved by the immortal heroes at Gettysburg. Gettysburg, what an unbelievable battle that was, the Battle of Gettysburg. What an unbelievable -- I mean it was so much and so interesting and so vicious and horrible and so beautiful in so many different ways. It represented such a big portion of the success of this country.

Gettysburg, wow.

I go to Gettysburg Pennsylvania to look and to watch and uh the statement of Robert E

Lee who's no longer in favor. Did you ever notice that he’s no longer in favor? ‘Never fight uphill me boy, never fight uphill.’ They were fighting uphill, he said wow that was a big mistake.

He lost his great general and uh they were fighting -- never fight uphill me boys. But it was too late and this is the state where…”

Trump’s “version” of the Battle of Gettysburg is an example of what happens as dementia progresses when no one is permitted to step in and redirect him. What resulted was a speech that quickly devolved into an incoherent, disorganized representation of events fraught with loose associations as well as as an inability to control impulses (such inability to remain on task when triggered by reading the words  “immortal heroes”). 

A prominent symptom of dementia is when one loses control of impulses and says what’s on their mind no matter how off base it is, because they don’t recognize what they’ve just said is off base. Once free of the teleprompter, we enter Trump’s inner world  of loose associations, seeming disorientation to place and time, as well as lack of ability to determine the difference between truth and fantasy as he begins to give his own “Gettysburg Address.”

The transition from teleprompter to Trumprompter is obvious. In his off-script remarks, Trump conflates vague ideas and associations to the point at which it becomes  word salad. He cannot employ higher order thinking to organize his “ideas” with any semblance of coherence and seems oblivious to how any of his off-script remarks might be received by his audience. Furthermore, it’s difficult to determine whether he knew where he was once he meandered off the teleprompter. 

Among other challenges, in dementia, one loses the capacity for insight. The combination of an impulse control disorder, inability to distinguish appropriate from inappropriate, and fantasy overtaking reality is demonstrated when Trump hears himself read the words “immortal heroes,” he cannot help but look away from the teleprompter, which is crucial to keeping him grounded. He demonstrates a significant  lack of insight and judgment by not understanding that he needs the teleprompter to anchor him, or else a thousand “covfefe’s” may come to light. As Trump relays his ”version” of the  Battle of Gettysburg, his cognitive dysfunction is on full display. He seems blissfully unaware that he is conflating words and making vague, elusive associations. 

Let’s take a closer look:

“Gettysburg, what an unbelievable battle that was, the Battle of Gettysburg,” he says, as he looks away from the teleprompter. Along with the other symptoms of dementia onset that Trump appears to be experiencing, there is an idiosyncratic merging of ideas and ideologies.

He continues, “[The Battle of Gettysburg] is beautiful in so many different ways.” (Between 46,000 and 51,000 young men died in this battle.) He goes on to say that he goes to “Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to look and watch.”

Again, he is conflating his experience with Civil War history: “Actually, he’s describing accurately what he’s doing at that moment,” Gartner says. “He’s standing, watching, and actually he has no comprehension beyond that moment.”

Emerging from these symptoms of dementia is glorification of the confederate general, Robert E Lee. Describing the general as, “no longer in favor,” Trump says, “Did you ever notice that he’s no longer in favor?” On the surface, this is an observation. As a dog whistle, this provides a powerful signal for his white, Southern base in support of the Confederate cause during the Civil War. 

It is also telling that while reading from the teleprompter, Trump supported George Washington’s “mission” across the Delaware, but in unscripted remarks he swings immediately to affinity with the Confederacy. 

Trump goes on to “quote” General Lee saying, “Never fight uphill me boys, never fight uphill. They were fighting uphill, he said, wow that was a big mistake.”

Only, Lee never said that. In fact, I spent way longer than anyone should trying to track down the origin of that quote and to my knowledge, no one ever said that.

Noted historian T.J. Stiles observed, “Trump’s analysis of Lee, a general in the battle, was wrong as Lee was not known ‘to have issued downslope-only orders.’” He went on to say that  Trump’s description of what happened is “rambling and unhinged.”

In the lead-up to the 2016 election, we were comparing Trump to his own baseline 30 years earlier and were already seeing cognitive decline. “Now we’re seeing he’s not the same person he was four years ago,” Gartner said. “We’re seeing an accelerating rate of decline. People don’t realize he’s pretty close to the cliff. He’s sliding headfirst down the mountain.”