Inside The Rumors Donald Trump Can't Read

There's a popular internet meme from the children's television show "Arthur" that shows Arthur's little sister, D.W., glaring at the "Keep Out" sign on his door. She snarks, "That sign can't stop me, because I can't read!" (via YouTube). Based on rumors about former President Donald Trump's literacy levels, it wouldn't be surprising if people begin twisting the meme against him.

What you may not know about Trump is some believe he can't read. Some people who have interacted with him think it could be true. In 2015, before Trump was elected, Pete Davidson of "Saturday Night Live" fame spoke on "Opie Radio." Davidson recounted Trump's time guest-hosting the show and said, "He doesn't really know how to read." Davidson also said Trump liked making up lines. The comedian continued, "He would go, 'Uh, I'm not gonna say this. I think I'm gonna say it the way I wanna say it. Is that okay? Is that okay, Lorne [Michaels]? ... And everybody's like, 'What?'" Davidson and the hosts had a good laugh reminiscing about how Trump improperly delivered one of his lines. Davidson added, "He thinks everybody's laughing with him, but we're all laughing at him."

Journalist Joe Scarborough wrote in a 2018 piece for The Washington Post that when pressed on if he could read, Trump said yes and jokingly said he often read the Bible. Others aren't so sure about the former president's abilities.

The rumors that Donald Trump cannot read have been speculated by others as well, such as in the 2018 book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House." Written by journalist Michael Wolff, he said, "Trump didn't read. He didn't really even skim. If it was print, it might as well not exist. Some believed that for all practical purposes, he was no more than semiliterate." Trump was displeased with the "Fire and Fury" book as a whole, writing on X, formerly Twitter, that he was not interviewed by Wolff. "Full of lies, misrepresentations, and sources that don't exist," Trump said.

Despite his insistence that the book wasn't accurate, Trump did an interview with Axios in 2017 where he confirmed he liked shorter briefings: "I like bullets, or I like as little as possible. I don't need, you know, 200-page reports on something that can be handled on a page. That I can tell you."

A 2017 insider for Reuters seemed to confirm that. Those who conducted briefings for Trump noticed he didn't pay attention for long and liked short memos with many visuals and graphics. An insider with the National Security Council also said they often included Trump's name in briefings to keep his attention. Someone involved in Trump's administration said wanting graphics was due to Trump's past career, saying, "He likes to visualize things. The guy's a builder. He has spent his whole life looking at architectural renderings and floor plans."

It has also been reported that Donald Trump likes watching television more than reading. In a July 2016 The New Yorker interview with Tony Schwartz, the ghost writer of Donald's memoir "The Art of the Deal," Schwartz said, "He has no attention span." Schwartz noticed that while trying to interview Donald. Schwartz also said, "That's why he so prefers TV as his first news source — information comes in easily digestible sound bites." The writer was convinced as an adult, Donald had never finished reading a book. An article in The New York Times also asserted that Donald doesn't read but instead watches lots of television.

It's believed that to be a good writer, you must be a reader, which could be why Donald uses ghostwriters like Schwartz for his books. Donald's 2023 book "Letters to Trump" was comprised of messages from famous faces over the years, so the majority of its content were written by other people.

A 2016 piece by The Washington Post said Donald admitted he doesn't read much and instead makes decisions using the things he already knows and "common sense." Donald's late ex-wife, Ivana Trump, even made a disturbing claim about his reading habits in the '90s that remains concerning regardless of his literacy levels.