THE LANGUAGE OF DONALD TRUMP — SERIES, ARTICLE II: How He Uses Words to Bend Reality: The “Everyone Knows” Pattern
How Trump Replaces Evidence With Certainty-and Why It Works
THE LANGUAGE OF DONALD TRUMP — SERIES, ARTICLE II:
How He Uses Words to Bend Reality: The “Everyone Knows” Pattern
How Trump Replaces Evidence With Certainty-and Why It Works
The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #694: Friday, December 19th, 2025.
Author’s Note
Before you begin.
The response to the recent article on Trump’s third-person speech patterns made something unmistakably clear: this wasn’t a detour. It’s a through line.
So…after the piece you’re about to read, I’m launching a weekly series exploring this same psychological terrain…ten to twelve weeks to start…and likely more as the material continues to open up.
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Now…let’s begin.
One of the most revealing things about Donald Trump’s language is not the claims he makes.
It’s the confidence with which he makes them.
Trump rarely argues in the traditional sense. He doesn’t present evidence…weigh competing explanations…or invite comparison. He doesn’t even pretend to reason his way toward conclusions.
Instead…he does something far more psychologically efficient.
He declares certainty…and allows that certainty to stand in for proof.
If you listen closely, you’ll hear the same phrases again and again:
“Everyone knows.”
“Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”
“It’s the worst.”
“It’s the best.”
“Always.”
“Never.”
“Total.”
These are not rhetorical flourishes. They are structural elements…of how Trump speaks…and…how he exerts influence.
They are how he closes the door on inquiry…before it opens.
Certainty Feels Better Than Truth
Truth…is demanding.
It asks for patience.
It comes with caveats.
It often refuses to resolve cleanly.
It leaves room for doubt and revision.
Certainty feels different.
Certainty feels solid.
Certainty feels authoritative.
Certainty feels like someone is in control.
Trump understands this distinction intuitively.
When he says, “Everyone knows,” he isn’t describing consensus. He’s offering emotional relief. He’s telling the listener: You don’t need to think this through. You don’t need to investigate. You don’t need to tolerate uncertainty.
The work has already been done.
All that’s left is agreement.
Absolutist Language as Cognitive Compression
Words like always and never perform a specific psychological function.
They compress complexity.
They erase edge cases.
They flatten variability.
They eliminate exceptions.
If something is “always true,” there is nothing left to examine.
If something is “the worst ever,” comparison becomes irrelevant.
If “nobody’s seen anything like this,” history is dismissed out of hand.
Absolutist language simplifies the world to a size the mind can hold easily.
That’s why it’s so appealing…especially in moments of stress…fear…or overload.
Trump does not use absolutes accidentally. He uses them…because they make thinking feel unnecessary.
“Everyone Knows” Is a Command
The phrase “everyone knows” is not descriptive. It is directive.
It does not invite evaluation.
It does not tolerate disagreement.
It does not allow space for nuance.
It functions as a command disguised as a statement of fact.
When Trump says “everyone knows,” three things happen simultaneously:
The claim is framed as settled.
Agreement is socially rewarded.
Disagreement is framed as deviant or dishonest.
If everyone knows, then anyone who questions the claim must be:
ignorant
corrupt
pretending
or acting in bad faith
Notice what is excluded: the possibility of sincere…informed disagreement. (You will recall reporters asking Trump a follow-up question on an answer he has given, where he replies, “What are you, stupid? You’re a very stupid person. Only a stupid person would ask that question.”
That exclusion is not incidental. It is the point.
If anyone does decide to question further, he hammers them.
(And… it’s part of his conditioning them…to never do it again. For the most part, it’s been effective.)
Certainty as Social Pressure
Human beings are deeply sensitive to group belonging.
The phrase “everyone knows” exploits this sensitivity.
It subtly asks: Do you want to be part of the group that “gets it,” or the outsiders who don’t?
The pressure is quiet, but it’s powerful.
Agreeing feels like alignment.
Questioning…feels like separation.
Trump’s language repeatedly forces this choice…without ever acknowledging it explicitly.
This is not persuasion through argument. It is persuasion through belonging.
The Vanishing of Evidence
One of the most striking aspects of Trump’s absolutist speech is how rarely it is followed by specifics.
You’ll hear:
“The most corrupt system ever.”
“The biggest scandal in history.”
“The greatest economy anyone’s ever seen.”
And then… nothing.
No numbers.
No sources.
No definitions.
No benchmarks.
The superlative replaces the data.
And because the claim is framed as self-evident…the absence of evidence…doesn’t register as a problem. It feels normal…almost expected.
Certainty…has crowded proof out of the room.
Why This Works Even When It’s Obviously False
There’s a comforting myth that only uninformed or gullible people respond to this kind of language.
That myth is wrong.
Absolutist certainty works on intelligent people too…especially when they are tired… angry…overwhelmed…or afraid.
In those states…the brain prioritizes clarity over accuracy.
A confident voice offering simple answers can feel stabilizing. Reassuring. Grounding.
Trump’s language exploits this vulnerability.
It does not ask the listener to weigh competing claims.
It asks them to rest inside certainty.
That rest can feel like safety…even when it’s built on falsehoods.
Certainty as Identity Formation
Over time, absolutist language does more than communicate claims.
It builds identity.
To agree with Trump’s “everyone knows” statements is not merely to accept information. It is to signal membership…in a group that sees itself as possessing obvious truths…others refuse to acknowledge.
This is why challenges feel personal.
You are not disputing a fact.
You are threatening belonging.
Once belief is fused with identity…evidence becomes dangerous.
Facts are no longer neutral. They are tests of loyalty.
Why Fact-Checking Doesn’t Penetrate
Traditional fact-checking assumes an argument is being made.
But absolutist certainty is not an argument. It is a stance.
Saying “Actually, not everyone knows that” misses the point. The phrase was never meant to be evaluated literally. Its purpose is emotional alignment…not factual accuracy.
This is why Trump can repeat demonstrably false claims without losing support.
The power is not in the truth of the statement.
It is in the confidence…with which it is delivered.
Confidence…repeated often enough…becomes its own form of credibility.
Certainty as Dominance Language
There is a reason authoritarian figures across cultures and eras favor absolutist speech.
Certainty signals dominance.
Someone who speaks in absolutes presents themselves as:
beyond doubt
above debate
immune to correction
This posture alone can destabilize institutions built on deliberation…evidence…and process.
Democracy depends on uncertainty…on the admission…that no one has a monopoly on truth.
Authoritarianism promises to eliminate uncertainty.
Trump’s language…consistently points in that direction.
The Emotional Cost of Permanent Certainty
Living inside absolutist narratives has consequences.
When certainty replaces inquiry:
Curiosity becomes suspect.
Questions become disloyal.
Complexity becomes threatening.
Over time…people lose the capacity to tolerate ambiguity.
And ambiguity…is where learning happens.
A culture trained to fear uncertainty becomes easier to control…but harder to govern honestly.
How Certainty Crowds Out Accountability
Absolutist claims leave no room for correction.
If something is “always true,” evidence to the contrary is irrelevant.
If something is “the best ever,” comparison is unnecessary.
If something is “totally exonerated,” process no longer matters.
This linguistic framing…protects the speaker from accountability.
There is nothing to revisit. Nothing to reassess. Nothing to refine.
Certainty…ends the conversation.
The Pattern Is Visible Once You Know What to Listen For
After a while, you’ll hear it immediately.
The moment someone says “everyone knows,” pause and ask:
Who is included in everyone?
Who is excluded?
What claim is being smuggled in without support?
You’ll start to notice how often certainty…arrives precisely where evidence should appear.
And you’ll understand why Trump relies on it so consistently.
This Is Not Sloppiness
It’s tempting to dismiss this language as crude or unsophisticated.
That would be a mistake.
Trump’s absolutist speech is not careless. It is strategic.
It prioritizes emotional dominance…over factual precision.
It values closure…over accuracy.
It rewards loyalty…over inquiry.
In a fragmented…anxious media environment…those priorities are powerful.
The Deeper Risk
When certainty replaces evidence at scale, public discourse changes.
Debate becomes pointless.
Institutions lose legitimacy.
Truth becomes tribal.
At that point…power no longer needs to persuade.
It only needs to assert.
Final Thought
Trump replaces evidence with certainty because certainty feels better than truth.
It feels strong.
It feels decisive.
It feels like control.
And in moments of fear or chaos…that feeling can be more persuasive than facts ever will be.
That is why this pattern matters.
Not because it is crude language.
But because it is effective language.
And effectiveness…not truth…is what reshapes reality when people are no longer taught to question confidence itself.
Everything above explains the mechanism. What follows…examines the cost…psychological…cultural…and political…of letting certainty replace thinking. That deeper analysis is for paid subscribers below.
#HoldFast
Back soon,
-Jack
Jack Hopkins
Every issue of The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter includes a complete, full-length article for everyone to read; no partials, no mid-article paywalls.
Occasionally, there’s a clearly labeled Paid Expansion at the end for subscribers who want deeper analysis. Paid-only articles will always be marked Paid Article EXCLUSIVE in the subject line. Clarity…consistency…and respect for your time.
