Is this bonkers? Is Trump's signature in (German) Fraktur?

[JackintheGreen]

So just all of a sudden this morning I was looking a Trump’s signature for some reason and I had this dumb epiphany: holy crap! Is that Fraktur?

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A little background. I know Fraktur is the typeset, not the handwriting form, which was generally known as Kurrent or Sütterlin (as opposed to the visually more familiar Normalschrift). My calling it Fraktur is just a quirk of how I learned it. But it is the handwriting of Germans in the first half of the 20th century. It’s how Himmler wrote. It was outlawed in Germany in 1941 for being “too Jewish”, which is just too stupid for words, and to my knowledge it was never used in the US except by immigrants to each other.

I know there have been a number of analyses of his signature, each belying various shades of partisanship (he’s strong; he’s weak; he’s confident; he’s insecure), but I’ve not seen anyone mention it’s resemblance to a classically “German” kind of handwriting.

So, am I crazy? Does anyone else see this similarity? Where would he have been taught to write like this? I learned it in high school German, so that’s my excuse, but I can’t imagine it’s his.

Not sure I have any conclusions to draw from this.

[JHB]

1. No, not even close

His name using fraktur lettering would have definite curves and ornamentation among the sharp angles.

On edit: even Hitler, who also had a bit of a stilted signature, had loops in the H because that was appropriate for handwriting, and he was much more familiar with fraktur than Drumpf. What Trump has is "tense up my fingers so I can consistently get a sharp squiggle that looks enough like my name to call it a day." There aren't any actual discernable letters, just suggestions that other people associate with letters because that's what's supposed to be in those places.

[JackintheGreen]

7. I'm willing to accept "no"

But “not even close”? That’s harder for me to swallow. Look at the ‘rinnerung’ in Erinnerung in the second line, or the ‘ldungs’ in bildungs in line 3.



As I said, I have no conclusions to draw here (for example, “see, he’s a Nazi and he’s signaling to his people!”). But I do see more than a passing resemblance.

But seeing the other comments, I guess it’s just me

[JHB]

10. But that handwriting, even though a lot of it is angular...

...has letters you can distinguish. That's not the case with Trump's signature, where you have to play "well, I suppose that thing is the "p" because it's where the "p" is supposed to be."

[JackintheGreen]

12. I realize I'm spiraling a bit here

but his last name is distringuishable. His first name is a bloody mess for sure, but compare to Donnerstag in the days of the week



Yeah...I’ve lost the thread here. I *still* see it, but I’m going to let it go. I appreciate you entertaining my crazy.

[louis-t]

2. My aunt would see a sig like that and say

"That kind of signature shows a mental illness."

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. Let me know when his EKG looks like this:

________________________________________________________

Thanks in advance.

[Nevilledog]

23. *snort*

[Dem2theMax]

24. .

[Ms. Toad]

4. I don't see any similarity. n/t

[Politicub]

5. It looks like a scribble. I think Trump uses that as a signature because

he can’t write his name. It’s just zigzags with a sharpie.

[JackintheGreen]

8. Zigzags is how my German teacher

described the right way to make e/r/u/n/m. It’s a very jagged script.

[Brother Buzz]

6. Trump's signature is simply a klan rally sans a few sharpie dots

Punctuation is important

[rusty fender]

18. 😂😂😂

[electric_blue68]

20. For linguistic clarity...

... would you call those dots "dropped umlats" ?

Thanks for the "typographical" sociological cleverness!

[Brother Buzz]

22. Well, in the spirit of this thread, one could make the argument they are Germanic umlauts

But to me, they just look like eyes too close together, a condition inbred Klan people often suffer from.

[MustLoveBeagles]

21. LOL

[johnp3907]

9. More like Russian cursive.

[jmowreader]

11. It looks more like an EKG tracing to me

Maybe he's trying to show us how healthy he is.

[JackintheGreen]

13. Thanks for entertaining my crazy, everybody!

I knew this was a forum I could ask this question.

[chowder66]

14. You must have had a really good German class.

My class didn't learn any of this. It would have been as fascinating then as it is now, so thanks!

[Wounded Bear]

15. I think it's the Himmler font...

[chriscan64]

16. He writes with his shoulder, only slightly bendinig his elbow

There is no finger or wrist movement or curves anywhere. It would look better if someone moved the paper under his stationary pen.

[Doc_Technical]

17. I think it spells "Dorfnarr"

[DFW]

19. LOL!!

Das wäre passend auf jeden Fall!