Can A Dry Throat Cause Slurred Speech? Let's Revisit What Donald Trump's Team Claimed In 2017

President Donald Trump's health is making headlines yet again following a speech he gave on February 11 at the White House, wherein he appeared to slur his speech. The moment came while he was referring to himself as the "undisputed champion of coal," unsuccessfully pronouncing the word "undisputed." 

Trump slurs his words:

"I'm proud to officially be named the undithput... the, when did this come out, Mr. Speaker?" pic.twitter.com/r0XC7grvzd

— FactPost (@factpostnews) February 11, 2026

This isn't the first time the president has been observed slurring his speech. While speaking in January 2026 in Davos, apart from erroneously referring to Greenland as Iceland, he was seriously slurring his speech. 

And in 2017, he experienced a very similar incident; during the tail end of a speech recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announcing plans to move the embassy to Tel Aviv, the president's words became noticeably slurred. "There is [sic] clearly some abnormalities of his speech," Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent and a neurosurgeon who has not treated Trump, told CNN. "You could call it slurring or just a little bit of difficulty forming the words." Meanwhile, Trump's then-White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, brushed the moment off, citing that the "president's throat was dry," while also referring to the line of questioning as "ridiculous" during a White House press conference (via Politico). In a 2009 paper in Contemporary Issues in Communication Science and Disorders, researchers found that when the vocal folds are "excessively dry," the resulting production of thicker mucus can affect the way a person talks and make them more likely to cough and clear their throat, causing further irritation.

Common causes of slurred speech or dysarthria include brain tumors, stroke, Huntington's disease (for which there is no cure), and dementia. As one can imagine, following Trump's unsuccessful attempt at pronouncing the word "undisputed" on February 11, many took to the internet to discuss their own thoughts. Even California Governor Gavin Newsom's press office got in on the action, seemingly hinting that Trump's slurred speech may be part of a larger cognitive issue (via X).

As you may recall, it's been rumored that Trump is experiencing incontinence issues, which have led some to wonder if bathroom issues are a sign of dementia. It should be noted, though, that Trump himself has vehemently denied experiencing any cognitive issues — even giving a bizarre reason he feels he won't develop Alzheimer's like his late father. "No, I don't think about it at all. You know why? Because whatever it is, my attitude is whatever," he said during an interview with New York Magazine.

Meanwhile, according to one dentist, it's entirely possible that President Donald Trump's slurred speech might actually be caused by wayward dentures. "Sounds like a loose denture plate," an unnamed board-certified dentist from Virginia told the Daily Mail in 2017. "Saliva can get trapped between an upper plate and the palate — or between the lower plate and the lower jaw – and that's what makes the noise."