"Look, having nuclear — my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart — you know, if you're a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I'm one of the smartest people anywhere in the world — it's true! — but when you're a conservative Republican they try — oh, do they do a number — that's why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune — you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we're a little disadvantaged — but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me — it would have been so easy, and it's not as important as these lives are — nuclear is so powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what's going to happen and he was right, who would have thought? — but when you look at what's going on with the four prisoners — now it used to be three, now it's four — but when it was three and even now, I would have said it's all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don't, they haven't figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it's gonna take them about another 150 years — but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us, this is horrible."

Actually trying to read a transcript of what he says is like pulling teeth. He's absolutely all over the place and takes half a dozen tangents to get to a one-sentence point

There was an article during his first term written by a French translator who was lamenting how her job was completely impossible - if she translates the general gist of his speech then it's like she's misrepresenting the nonsense, but if she translates it directly then a lot of people think that she's being either incompetent or malicious

I read the original comment as referring to quality, not substance, of his speech. Both are lackluster but the average American isn't eloquent so his style of speech appeals to them more than a typical politician.

That's the cocaine energy he using to talk that long

The answer is that Trump's speech works for the new reason why empty new age platitudes work. Not because they say something interesting, but because they sound like they might.

People aren't hearing Trump speak because he's not saying anything, they're hearing what they want to hear in the word salad.