‘Why can’t U.S. Presidents be more literate?’: Donald Trump fails to pronounce a science term and blames it on scientists instead
For someone who has time and again expressed outrageous disdain for non-white people who can’t speak English, President Donald Trump ironically never fails to prove that English is not his strong suit either.
In a press conference at the Oval Office on Oct. 16, Trump and his allies gathered to announce new policies to make in vitro fertilization (IVF) more affordable, calling it a “historic victory for American women, mothers, and families.” Claiming that the top fertility drug used in IVF is currently 700% more expensive in the U.S., Trump proudly introduced price cuts on one of the key medications:
“EMD Serono, the largest fertility drug manufacturer in the world, has agreed to provide massive discounts to all fertility drugs they sell in the United States, including the most popular drug of all the IVF drugs, Gonal-F. So it’s Gonal-F. Is that a proper pronunciation? Close enough, right? Gonal-F.”
The internet could barely keep up before he dropped a sequel to his war on syllables. Moments later, when referencing another common IVF drug selling in Europe, he stumbled again:
“The FDA will be working with the company to expedite review and approval of another common fertility IVF drug, and currently it’s selling in Europe. It’s Pergoveris. Pergoveris. And that’s a nice name. Pergoveris. Why can’t you name a nice, simple name? A nice, easy name.”
In his signature entitlement, Trump made up for missing his briefing before the meeting by blaming the scientists for giving the drug a hard-to-pronounce name instead. And to save his own, Trump justified his lack of intellect by saying, “It doesn’t matter. If it works, that’s all we care about, right?”
This literary lapse came right when people were about to let him off the hook for his brilliant mathematics. A few minutes earlier, Trump was touting his so-called “most-favored-nation” drug pricing deal, which he claimed would slash IVF costs by “400 percent, 200 percent, 600 percent.” He called those “Numbers that nobody’s ever seen before,” proving his math remains as stable as his syntax.
The moment went viral across social media within hours. One user on X summed it up bluntly: “Why can’t U.S. Presidents be more literate?” But we need to be questioning his whole administration. When his Secretary of Health and Human Services gives statements suggesting vaccines should be segregated by race and links autism to the common over-the-counter pain reliever Tylenol, you can’t really expect much from the one dancing on the head of these fools.
While it’s tempting to laugh at such incidents, and most of the internet did, the slip was symbolic. When a president can’t pronounce the very drugs he’s regulating, maybe the real problem isn’t the language. It’s the literacy.
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