Trump is almost gone but we've found maybe the best, and most unusual, impression of him

In two months, Donald Trump will be out of the White House but, at the last minute, it looks like we may have found the best, if not the most unusual, impression of him out there.
Stand-up comedian James Austin Johnson has been impersonating the president since he was elected, but it wasn't until recently he figured out the right approach. Trump is such an over-the-top character in real life that he's tough to spoof.
"When he first got elected and I was playing with the voice in 2016, 2017, it would show my sort of left-wing anger a lot. I would be like, 'We're going to kill everybody. We're blowing up everybody's houses I don't like,'" Johnson told Vanity Fair. "I'd be more openly racist and homophobic as Trump."
However, that didn't seem to connect with audiences.
Johnson was raised as a conservative Christian in Tennessee, so he took his intimate knowledge of Trump supporters and used that to help shape his impersonation.
"Trump manages to uncomplicate the world for a lot of people. They don't give a shit about, he fucks porn stars and he fucks around on his wife. They don't care about any of his earthly sins," he told Discourse Blog.
"He repeats their own values back to them. And all they want to see is their values reflected in the world," Johnson continued. "The fact that we don't all see Trump in the same light could be a reason for why a lot of the Trump comedy doesn't hit."
So instead, he focused on Trump the "bullshitter."
"Whenever I ramble in that Trump voice, I'm hoping to just sort of subtly illustrate, like, this guy just has no idea what he's talking about," Johnson said. "He just talks out of his ass and he's pure Americana. He is confidence without substance. He gives voice to that angry confidence and he doesn't have to be right."
Johnson went viral for a lo-fi video he did of Trump discussing the music and career of "Weird Al" Yankovic. The impression is great because he masterfully recreates Trump's rambling style while speaking passionately about something pretty pointless.
Which is a lot of what Trump does at his rallies.
Another popular video is Trump discussing Scooby-Doo.
"Scooby-Doo, they call him Scooby-Doo. They call the show Scooby-Doo. But Scooby doesn't do anything. Scooby is not involved," Johnson, as Trump, said in an August video. "Half the time Scooby is not involved. He's just a bystander. It's one of the worst deals we've ever had.
"Scooby, frankly, gets much too much attention, money," Johnson said later in the video. "We're giving way too much attention to Mr. Scooby."
While a lot of comedians focus on the '80s womanizing version of Trump, Johnson sees him as an old many with terrible sinuses.
"I tend to hover around Rally Trump, and there's absolutely no rehearsal there. I pick a pop-culture topic, usually something that is an actual opinion I actually hold," he said.
Johnson, an avid gamer, also did a hilarious video as Trump conflating his election day performance with Pokemon.
Johnson believes the key to doing Trump is to be as unrehearsed as the president. "I think I might have written out a couple of things a couple of times, and I just noticed that those wouldn't take off online and it was missing some mojo of what makes Trump Trump," he said.
"Trump is not written out, and he's not rehearsed," he said.
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There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."