A brief live-stream segment by TJ Walker (The Habit Influencer) discussing political use of teleprompters. Walker critiques Donald Trump’s recent, poor teleprompter performance—squinting, favoring one panel, tripping on words—and argues teleprompters are neutral communication tools that require rehearsal. He offers practical tips: practice aloud, familiarize with text, vary volume and pacing, pause, and move the head to alternate between panels.
Chapters
Donald Trump in the news for, of all things, poor use of teleprompter, of course. Donald Trump famously, for the last year and several months, has criticized politicians for using teleprompter. One of the hallmarks of his campaign has been, I don't use a teleprompter. I'm honest. I speak from the God, I'm real. There shouldn't be anyone allowed to run for president if they have to rely on a teleprompter. Of course, now he's using a teleprompter. The problem, of course, is he's using it poorly. Now, there's been a lot of criticism across the ideological spectrum, so I'm not really attacking his teleprompter because of my personal feelings about him as a candidate. When he's reading the teleprompter, he tends to squint. He's looking way too much to one of the panels. Typically, you have two different teleprompters, one on each side. He's spending all of his time looking at one, and he's tripping on words. He's mangling words. He looks as though he is looking at the text for the first time. You can't do that. You have to spend time practicing and rehearsing. He famously doesn't like that. Here's the big tip I'd have for voters in general. When you hear someone criticizing other politicians for using a teleprompter, chalk that up to pure demagoguery. A long time ago, 36 years ago, there were some Democrats who criticized Ronald Reagan for his reliance on teleprompters and cue cards, and that was believed. And now you have candidates who proclaim to love Ronald Reagan attacking people of the other party for use of teleprompter. The teleprompter is simply a tool to help people communicate more effectively. Criticizing a candidate for using a teleprompter is like criticizing a candidate for using a computer and not writing everything out in cursive. It's an absolute absurdity. But if you're going to use a teleprompter, at least take a few minutes to use it effectively. Many of you have heard me say this before, but again, the basic tips with teleprompter, you got to practice out loud before you're doing it in front of the real audience. You've got to be familiar with all the words. You have to sometimes speak a little louder, sometimes softer, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, occasionally pause. And you have to move your head so that it doesn't look like you're just going back and forth between the two teleprompters, like you're watching a tennis tournament. And you can't just focus on one of the panels exclusively. You have to mix it up. Do that and you'll be successful using the teleprompter, whether you're Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, or Donald Trump.
