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Rhetorical devices in political speeches
How do the linguistic strategies used in Donald Trump improvised speeches differ from those used in the written speeches?
Extended Essay English A: Language and Literature Category: 3
Word Count: 3996
Introduction:
The victory of the Republican candidate put an end to one of the most controversial and diverse political campaigns in history and a new political stage began for the country and, inevitably, also for the rest of the international community. The case of Donald Trump is especially curious, he is not a traditional political character, but a rather atypical figure, often politically incorrect and who refuses to play the assigned role. He is a speaker who, despite having some common features with other well-known political figures, does not adapt to any previous model (McAdams). Donald Trump is the former president of the US and was running for the 2020 presidential election as a member of the republican party, however he lost against the democrat Joe Biden by 74 electoral votes in a tight race for the presidency of the country (Bennett and Berenson). Trump and his political views have often been described as nationalist (Pinto). As president, Trump had pursued sizable income tax cuts, increased military spending and rollbacks of federal health-care protections (“Donald Trump policies: Where does the president stand on key issues?”).
Rationale:
Likewise, if the importance and influence of the United States is taken into account in today's world, the figure and message of the former president are of great relevance, both nationally, in the US, and internationally and have the potential to modify the way of doing politics of the next decades. This new policy, its discourse and its action strategies, break with all previous models, which prevents us from predicting its next steps, extracting common patterns to its action and developing our own action strategy (McAdams). It is precisely for this reason that it is necessary to investigate, analyze and understand Trump's discourse in detail, in order to extract references and conclusions that allow to establish the bases for a better treatment of this new political order. Moreover, in the field of interpretation this research is imperative, because one must draw reliable conclusions and markers, in order to facilitate the understanding of the original message as much as possible and improve the interpretation of the message's impact on the target audience. In depth analysis of Trump's speeches has already begun, especially in the press, but it must be continued because its impact and repercussions in other areas, such as sociology, politics or linguistics, can be important. (Begley). For all these reasons - the importance and repercussions of Donald Trump's speech on current and future politics, the atypical nature of his person and the lack of current references for the treatment and interpretation of speeches of this new political order (McAdams) - it has been concluded that the analysis of Donald Trump's speeches are an object of study that may be of great interest and may open the way to further research about how linguistic strategies impact politics and our society. In this way, if the characteristics, difficulties and most common problems of this discourse are extracted, not only could the work of interpreting the figure of Trump himself be facilitated, but it would also be extrapolated, after adapting the most individualized criteria, to the rest of political speeches of this new political order of the XXI century (Fukuyama et al.).
Methodology:
The linguistic strategies that will be analysed are the use of structure, content, persuasive strategies and political metaphors. These four play a very important role in Donald Trump speeches. (Golshan). In order to analyse the use of these strategies and their significance in the speeches, it is crucial to understand what the strategies are and how they are used. Rhetoric is a discipline that provides the tools and techniques to express oneself in the best possible way, so that both language and speech are effective enough to delight, persuade or move (“What is Rhetoric?”). Many people learn about this technique worldwide and ask themselves when this will be useful for them to use. (Gerstle and Nai ) Rather, one should ask ourselves: What is rhetoric not used for? Wherever there are human beings, communication becomes inevitable. In fact, if something makes us human, it is precisely that urge onehave to speak and write to communicate our thoughts, desires and needs.The art of rhetoric, understood as the ability, experience or talent to communicate assertively through political discourse, is probably the oldest and most complex political strategy that politicians often carry out. (“The Art of Rhetoric:*”) The joining of sentences within a political discourse can lead to the top or the collapse of the candidate’s career. That is why it is so important to study. Behind the speeches that are developed daily in the conservative party as well as those improvised by Trump, there is a communication strategy of intentionality, determining objectives and the influence that is aspired to generate in citizens (Roberts). This last point is why it is so important for citizens to understand that a good use of rhetoric can convince them of voting for ideologies that they never thought they would vote for.
Regarding these indirect persuasive strategies, onefind, in the first place, linguistic strategies that are used in the construction of the discourse and that fundamentally consist of the elaboration of a text in a strategic way to emphasize certain points and generate a concrete impact (Roberts). There are some recurring strategies used in Donald Trump's speeches: polarized structuring of communication agents or themes (us vs. them); alteration of macro and micro textual structures to avoid a specific topic or emphasize another; use of argumentative structures with fallacious arguments; use of euphemisms or introduction of neologisms; and use of literary or rhetorical figures. On the other hand, one also finds rhetorical strategies, which seek persuasion through the creation of situations that implicitly lead to the approval of the public, which manifests it through applause (Golshan). They can be obvious and direct strategies, such as a direct question or request, tokens of appreciation or mention of a specific person, or indirect strategies. However, coming back to the main focus of this essay; improvised versus written speeches, it is crucial to determine whether the linguistic devices mentioned are used in the same way in both text typologies (Ferraro). Four speeches will be analysed in order to determine the difference between written and improvised Donald Trump speeches. Two written speeches, the first UN speech and the inaugural speech, and one improvised speech, the victory speech, will be analysed in this essay.
Analysis:
Analysis of improvised victory speech:
Structure:
In the Victory Speech, which, despite having a small pre written part, has a fundamentally improvised character, one can identify a brief exordium, of just a few lines, in which the audience's wait is appreciated and serves to quickly capture the audience's attention before proceeding with the rest of the speech. (van Dijk )Immediately after, and without very elaborate or complex connectors, in the fourth and fifth paragraphs of the speech one can clearly find the narratio, in which Donald Trump briefly exposes the main idea of his speech. Despite being spread over two paragraphs, the cornerstone on which the discourse revolves is contained in the last sentence of the paragraph: «I'm reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great country . » (“Transcript: Donald Trump’s Victory Speech”) After this brief statement of intent, Trump goes on to argue how to achieve this goal. It is a brief confirmation, based on five key ideas that are developed in the following 13 paragraphs and that can be summarized in the following points: infrastructure construction, support for war veterans, use of national talent and resources, a solid economic plan and take the reins of the country, prioritizing national interests over international ones. (“Transcript: Donald Trump’s Victory Speech”) Although up to this moment, the structure of classical rhetoric had been respected, at this point, the argumentation is interrupted and a meta-discourse of gratitude begins, rather enunciative, which presents a linear, disjointed and unpredictable structure, centered above all in the 20 members of the Trump team present in the room. However, in paragraph 41, Trump takes up the classic structure and begins the peroration in which he briefly mentions the main idea and abruptly closes the speech.
Persuasive textual speeches:
Regarding the use and effectiveness of persuasive resources, Victory Speech is characterized by using, with great success, direct and obvious strategies. Especially noteworthy are the mentions to collaborators and members of the electoral campaign, as well as expressions of gratitude. These are easily identifiable resources with high levels of reaction among an audience that is favorable to the speaker, so that, in all cases - except for the mention of Chris Christie (“Transcript: Donald Trump’s Victory Speech”)- the audience reacts in the expected way. On the other hand, and although less numerous, the successful use of several “claptraps” can be observed. (van Dijk) One can find, above all, structures of the type headline-punchline, pursuit and contrast, the latter coinciding with the changes in emphasis and polarized structures described by van Dijk. (van Dijk )
Political metaphor:
The Victory Speech has a lower concentration of metaphorical elements than other speeches, which is partly due to its brevity and spontaneous nature. However, one can find several resources of this type, especially personifications and metonymies, that are easily identifiable with some of the most well-known and widespread underlying myths and metaphors in political discourses. In this specific discourse, especially at the beginning, one can see how what onecall war metaphors that refer to the allegory of "politics is a conflict" are used. This idea is reinforced through the use of verbs such as fight and other warlike expressions, which help to establish the idea that there are two sides, a winner and a loser, and that they are opposed to each other. On the other hand, it is also worth highlighting the use of personifications in this discourse that contribute to the idea that "the nation is a person", (“Transcript: Donald Trump’s Victory Speech”) a metaphor that usually appears accompanied by the metonymic use of the first person plural that identifies citizens with the Status: «America will no longer settle for anything less than the best. We must reclaim our country's destiny and dream big and bold and daring. We can do that. We're going to dream of things for our country ”. Through the use of these metaphors, Trump evokes in the public an idea of unity and security in the face of the future, which bears a great resemblance to the classic political myth of "the force of unity" referred to by Geiss (1987) in The Language of Politics. (Geiss)
Analysis of written United Nations speech:
Structure:
The First UN Speech, which presents a nature that one could define as “corseted” as it is a prototypical speech, at a structural level, written and revised, and prepared to be read. Despite being the longest speech, it is the speech that best respects the classical structure, with hardly any alterations. It begins with a longer exordium than the other speeches, by including a current topic such as the consequences of the various hurricanes and cyclones on the American people in 2017. It then continues with a broader narrative in which develops in detail the main idea of his speech, in which he invites the rest of the UN countries to follow the example of the United States and: «[become] strong and independent nations that embrace their sovereignty to promote security, prosperity and peace for themselves and for the world ' (“Full Transcript: Donald Trump at the United Nations General Assembly”). Having established this cornerstone, Trump widely develops a confirmation based on three main arguments: in this way one can better fulfill our duty to citizens, one will be stronger to fight together against enemies - specifically, North Korea, Iran, regimes in the Middle East, the so-called Islamic State, unwanted immigration (including the refugee conflict) and Venezuela - and one can make the UN as strong as it was in its early days (Buchholz). After this argumentation, it ends with an extensive peroration that takes up the initial idea and returns to the USA as an example and reference for the rest. (“Full Transcript: Donald Trump at the United Nations General Assembly”)
Persuasive textual features:
This speech presents different characteristics from the rest, as it is a speech before the United Nations General Assembly. It is rare that in these types of speeches there is a lot of interaction with the public, since there is usually little applause during a politician's intervention and it is mainly non-verbal / non-voiced reactions. For this reason, the presence of Atkinson strategies is much smaller and the number of successful indirect strategies is limited to four. These are, on the one hand, three interventions that respond to the pursuit structure and, on the other hand, an intervention that combines strategies (take a position and problem-solution). However, despite the scarce presence of these strategies, it is worth highlighting their effectiveness, not always immediate, but that, accompanied by the appropriate resources, in this case silences and long pauses until the desired effect is produced, they manage to obtain the reaction sought by the prayer.
Political metaphors:
In this speech, one can observe a very metaphorical and mythological rhetorical style, whose main objective is to legitimise the policies and ideals of the Trump Administration. In the first place, one find numerous reifications and travel metaphors that respond to the underlying metaphor of “the road to democracy / peace is a journey”, which seek to justify or legitimise certain policies and international decisions taken, as well as attitudes protectionist and conservative, through associations with obstacles along the way and the use of the necessary tools to build a good future: «To overcome the perils of the present and to achieve the promise of the future, one can must begin with the wisdom of the past Likewise, one can also observe numerous metaphors that correspond to the idea “politics / the search for democracy is a conflict”, (“Full Transcript: Donald Trump at the United Nations General Assembly”) which draw in the cognitive panorama of the public a scene of opposing and ideologically opposing sides. In order to reinforce this association, this metaphor is often combined with that of "undemocratic states are enemies", almost always expressed through personifications and within which other metaphors dependent on this can be grouped such as "enemies deceive," "enemies are cruel and evil" and "enemies are like a disease." Furthermore, given that in this case a metonymic use of the first person plural is made to identify the United States and us by the “democratic states”, it is not only about enemies of a specific country, but also about fundamental values. With all these metaphors, Trump can categorically, “legitimately” and very persuasively summarise his intentions: “If the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph. When decent people and nations become bystanders to history, the forces of destruction only gather power and strength . However, in contrast to the dark panorama posed by the previous metaphors, one can find the last combination of metaphors present in the discourse. In this case it is a series of personifications and metonymies that lead to the following approach: “EE. America is the moral leader. " This metaphor helps to identify certain values that are generally associated with good, ethical and moral behaviour, with the policies and way of acting of the United States and, thanks to the metonymy of leader by state, also with those of Donald Trump. (“Full Transcript: Donald Trump at the United Nations General Assembly”)
Analysis of written Inaugural Address:
Structure:
On the other hand, one will analyse the Inaugural Address. This speech has a theme very similar to the previous speech, but, unlike that one, it is a written speech prepared to be read, which presents an almost perfect archetypal structure. It begins with a simple, simple and short exordium in which he gives thanks and that serves to silence the audience and start the rest of the speech. This is followed by a longer narrative that clearly sets out the main idea of the speech "Today begins a new era for America." (“Full text: 2017 Donald Trump inauguration speech transcript”) and that is developed and exemplified during several paragraphs until reaching the body of the speech, the argumentatio. In it, three main arguments are developed: power returns to the people (its rightful owner), one has new policies to achieve change and together we are stronger, more powerful and unstoppable. Although when analyzing the macrostructure of the argumentatio, one is again faced with a confirmation, it should be noted that the first argument is introduced by opposition, which results in a hybrid between refutatio-confirmation that allows giving greater strength to the argument favorable to the initial precept (Nordquist). Finally, one finds a peroration, which is announced at the end of the third argument and which develops progressively until it culminates in the last seven sentence-paragraphs of the speech.
Content:
In the Inaugural Address, one can also find a political speech that contributes to the reproduction of unequal relationships (in this specific case, xenophobia and the rejection of globalization). It is worth highlighting the continued use of polarizing structures, accentuated by rhetorical figures and concrete lexicon that have a clear political function. However, in this case this polarization fulfills a double function, not only contributes to the division between Democrats and Republicans, but also serves to distance Trump from other politicians, thus legitimizing his image that he is one more member of the people, a businessman. Likewise, this idea appears accompanied by redefinitions of the thematic scope, reiterating the indirect association that we saw in the previous speech that going against the Trump Administration and its policies is fighting against the basis of democracy: "At the center of this movement [ campaign] is a crucial conviction: that a nation exists to serve its citizens" Finally, the political function that associations fulfill by argumentation for the legitimization of xenophobic and racist policies and the reproduction of these phenomena is especially noteworthy in this discourse. Throughout the speech Trump repeatedly follows the following logical-argumentative sequence: (1) for years the US has had a very lax immigration policy, (2) unemployment and poverty have increased in recent years, (3) there are crimes and violence related to immigration, (4) these Crimes violate America's founding principle, and (5) if we can eliminate the source of crime, violence, unemployment, and poverty, our citizens will be happy and fulfill their full potential. In this way, through what apparently is a logical argument and with proven facts, Trump manages to generate in the public the following association: to support immigration is to go against the United States, which legitimizes racist policies and behaviors and contributes to its reproduction and acceptance at all levels of society. (“Full text: 2017 Donald Trump inauguration speech transcript”)
Persuasive textual features:
However, in the Inaugural Address, the use of these rhetorical devices is very different. One finds fewer direct and obvious resources, these being reduced to the minimum and indispensable number (exordium and peroratio) (Grether), and a very impressive presence of indirect resources. The use of contrast type structures predominates, which appear accompanied by phrases with polarized structures, but they do not achieve the desired effect, except in isolated cases. However, one can observe that, when this strategy is combined with those of the pursuit type, a favorable response is obtained from the public. (Grether) The pursuit, headline-punchline and three-part list strategies are the most used in the rest of the speech. Among the latter, it is worth highlighting the effectiveness of the three-part lists in this specific discourse, which are well received by the public and which cause, on several occasions, the public to react in the third element of a longer list, cutting off the speaker before he can finish his enumeration.
Political metaphor:
In the Inaugural Address, on the other hand, one can observe a greater use of metaphors, as well as a greater variety of typologies. One can find, above all personifications and reifications, but they are used in all kinds of metaphors: travel, war, health, light and destruction. However, in this discourse the simultaneous presence of metaphors, which interact with each other, is especially noteworthy. As in the previous speech, one can observe numerous personifications that evoke the metaphor “the nation is a person”; However, in combination with the metaphor "politics is conflict" and, when it appears accompanied by metaphors of struggle and verbs such as steal, ripped from (which imply violence and injustice) with others such as bring back (to recover something taken away), one finds himself before the evocation of the myth of the "courageous leader"; that is to say, the Trump association with the qualities of a saviour and protector of the people: "I will fight for you with every breath in my body - and I will never, ever let you down" Also noteworthy is the combination of the allegory "the nation is a person" with the metonymy "the leader for the State" (“Full text: 2017 Donald Trump inauguration speech transcript”), which generate a third different metaphorical idea: "the nation is the leader". These concepts are accompanied by the interspersed use of the pronouns "I" and "we", which accentuate the association between the nation and the leader, helping to identify the entire ideology and foundational bases of the US with the person of Donald Trump, thus creating the idea that his person, ideology and policies, are and are in line with the fundamental principles of respect, democracy, freedom and tolerance: "At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America , and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other" (“Full text: 2017 Donald Trump inauguration speech transcript”)
Conclusion:
To answer the question of How do the linguistic strategies used in Donald Trump improvised speeches differ from those used in the written speeches? , it is crucial to take all aspects of the textual analysis into account. Firstly, the improvised speech is characterized by having a weaker structure, in which one can find numerous interruptions and thematic changes that drastically alter the thread of discourse. These alterations are found fundamentally in the argumentatio, being remarkable the appearance of meta-discourses at this level, which complicate the structure of the classical device and give discourse a new, spontaneous and unpredictable way. Likewise, in relation to the content this typology is characterized by having short phrases, sometimes unfinished and with low informative content; as well as the use of a more informal registry in which they are common structural and lexical repetitions, and the use of wildcard terms. This construction discourse not only responds to a communicative function, but also serves to a political function, which turns this type of speech into a weapon of legitimation politics.
Secondly, Donald Trump's written speeches are characterized by respecting the classic argumentative discursive structure and presenting a clear common thread. These are cohesive texts made up of sentences with high informative content and longer than those of improvised speeches. More references to current politics and other interventions by the speaker appear. On the other hand, the discourses present a higher register, without a significant presence of "wildcard terms" (Nordquist) and with a special care for the form. However, the speeches also transcend the linguistic sphere to become tools of political and ideological legitimation.
It is concluded that they are different typologies, with different characteristics, although in a certain way complementary, and that therefore they present different complications for the interpreter and, consequently, also have different levels of theoretical difficulty. Speeches of an improvised nature present a level of basic or intermediate difficulty for a simultaneous interpreter, as they are simple texts, but with a more complex and unpredictable structure. On the other hand, written speeches have a more coherent and recognizable structure, but the content, lexicon and subject matter is higher and more varied; The spontaneous and unpredictable nature of the speaker, and the premeditated ambiguities and intertextual contradictions, complicate things further. The similarities in language and persuasive textual features make it difficult to distinguish between improvised and written speeches, however, the differences in the structure of the two typologies make it obvious which Trump speeches are improvised and which are written.
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Extended Essay: English Language B
Introduction:
As it is stated in the book “Fire and Fury”, “Donald Trump is the most controversial presidenct of our time. Never before has a presidency so divided the American people” (Wolff). Hence, who is this president that is, by many Americans, viewed as “incompetent, arrogant and narcissistic” (Verhovek)? Moreover, what is so controversial about him? After I had done my research, I realised that Trump’s Tweets contributed to this characterisation. It can be greatly described that “it is all part of the modern theatre of politics” (Williams) because they influence, manipulate and bias the receiving audience who later on vote for him and consequently form their opinions based on Trump’s ideology. Despite being restricted to 280 characters, “his Tweets have the power to shape international relations, send stock prices up – or down - and galvanize the American public” (Los Angeles Times). Furthermore, Trump’s Tweets have mostly been an éclat and created an international stir yet, he is being admired for his colloquial writing style. It is surprising how much the whole diplomatic world responds to Tweets sent out by Trump and how much one Tweet influences political decisions made by countries world-wide. Thus, I raised the question "What impact as well as reaction has the language used by Donald J. Trump in his Tweets evoked around the United States and the world?" This is an important topic to investigate because it is something that affects all of us, everywhere and every day. It does not only show how easy it is to influence the general public by words moreover, it is a warning to every individual to not fall into the trap of believing everything only because of emotional appeal, affection and a simple writing style. Social Media nowadays is the most influential and widespread communication tool as it is used by every generation. Trump has changed politics nowadays by using the mechanics of Social Media on such a large scale. He has reached a new level of communicating with the United States and world citizens. “More than three-quarters of Americans are seeing, reading or hearing about Trump’s Tweets, according to a new Gallup poll. That figure is especially interesting considering only about 8% of Americans said they actually follow Trump on Twitter, and even fewer, 4%, said they follow Trump and read all or most of his Tweets. Out of those polled, 26% said they use Twitter. Nearly 70% of people said they learn about Trump’s Tweets indirectly from a secondary source. This can include someone forwarding them Trump’s Tweets directly, seeing Trump’s Tweets retweeted by someone else they follow, or even less direct ways, like seeing one in a news article” (Segarra). The direct and unfiltered contact over Twitter with the general public, which are deliberately or unwantedly exposed to the Tweets, make everybody accessible to opinions and propaganda by the publisher. The Tweets sent out on daily basis, 24/7, are succinct, rather powerful communication devices. Trump’s word choice and the way he conveys information is unique. It shows the limitations of language and its strengths. His wording is deliberately chosen for everyone to understand however; his terminology has been intendedly selected to already make the reader interpret the Tweets in a certain way.
Rationale:
I personally think it is important to see how much one man is able to achieve with sending out Tweets every single day. Trump has 55.6 million (status: November 2018) national and international followers including politicians, businessmen and the general public. This shows the severity of diplomatic seriousness which should exist in the language, the register and the topics used in his daily Tweets. It portrays how much power and influence Trump has with his Tweets. Bill George argues that “If the Roman emperors ruled by edict, President-elect Donald Trump appears poised to rule by Tweet.” “Due to the development of science and technology, it has never been so easy and simple to communicate with others. It is said that political communication is now not only possible through television, radio and other traditional mass media but now, living in the 21st century, political communication through the Internet becomes an inevitable trend” (Liu 2). Social media in general allows real-time broadcasting of content which then is accessible to everyone without having been filtered by a “man in the middle” such as a newspaper.
Methodology:
The main information I will be collecting for my Extended Essay will come from the Social Media platform “Twitter”. “Twitter is an online news and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as ‘Tweets’” (Wikipedia). Twitter is my primary source, as I only there can gain first-hand information about Trump’s daily Tweets. Consequently, I have set up a Twitter account myself. The structure, I will be adapting for this essay, has already been proposed by “political scientist Harold Lasswell who characterized four different functions of political propaganda in his 1927 PhD dissertation at page 195.:
1. To mobilize hatred against the enemy;
2. To preserve the friendship of allies;
3. To preserve the friendship and, if possible, to procure the cooperation of neutrals;
4. To demoralize the enemy” (“Analysing Trump's Tweets”).
“This might seem as an outdated structure but the characterisation still remains influential ninety years later with Lasswell’s 1927 dissertation. Lasswell’s four functions of propaganda can be usefully applied to understanding the Tweets of President Trump“ (“Analysing Trump's Tweets”). The four body paragraphs will focus on how the language in Trump’s Tweets can be classified into one of those four points and what reactions as well as impact these then evoked.
This essay falls under the category 2b. My target audience for this piece of work would be people who are interested in Social Media communication and additionally, how Trump’s Tweets affect national and international relations. Especially, people of younger age should be encouraged to read this essay as this shows how future electoral processes and politics are being carried out world-wide. The focus of this investigation will mainly lie on Twitter being a Social Media platform, on which it is much easier to reach out to a wider target audience for any specific purpose. There will be no clear borderline between an obvious, traditional election campaign and a campaign which subconsciously influences voters by the means of Social Media. The information I will be gathering are mainly primary sources as all his Tweets are posted on his Twitter account. I will also use secondary sources, such as analyses and interpretations of Trump’s Tweets as well as articles and academic journals. The focus of the investigation will be on the language used by Trump in his Tweets such as semantic devices and syntax. It shows how powerful words can be and how euphemisms and dysphemisms can make a change in the reader’s perception of the message.
Discussion and Findings:
Donald J. Trump’s frequency of tweeting is imposing: “As of December 29th 2016, Trump tweeted 221 times since the president had been elected in November. These early presidential Tweets had already allowed for an analysis: 69% come from an Android phone (153 Tweets), 27% come from an IPhone (59) and four percent from a web client (9). ‘IPhone’ Tweets are not regarded as written by Trump himself rather the Android Tweets which are personal thoughts and reactions. 27% (40) of those are positive and have a congratulatory tone. 61% (94) have a rather negative or critical tone and 12% (19) are practically neutral. One key aspect of how his use of rhetoric differentiates himself from others is that he is emotionally framing his Tweets. Most of his Tweets are emotionally charged which influences the reader of his Tweets” (Nerdwriter1 00:00:47-00:03:05). No other politician tweets on such a large scale every day. For example, Angela Merkel’s Twitter profile is less developed and up to this point her last Tweet was on the 16th of January 2017.
1. “To mobilize hatred against the enemy”
According to Lasswell “the first function of propaganda is to mobilize hatred against the enemy” (“Analysing Trump's Tweets”). As an area where this can be applied and seen in a more frequent manner are the Tweets posted by Trump which are for example “seemingly stirring up hatred against the Iranian government” (“Analysing Trump's Tweets”), Hillary Clinton and the Hispanic ethnic minority. In this investigation, Clinton will be taken as an example of a person publically well-known, where Trump is mobilizing hatred against by just the use of powerful rhetoric.
When looking at the most recent Tweets written by Trump about Clinton in the years 2017/2018, he is nowadays still “ranting and raving” about winning over Clinton in the elections. On the 23rd of April 2017, “he claimed that he could still beat Clinton in the popular vote” (Schonfeld) yet, not considering the complete context, but still tweeting:
“New polls out today are very good considering that much of the media is FAKE and almost always negative. Would still beat Hillary in….
...popular vote. ABC News/Washington Post Poll (wrong big on election) said almost all stand by their vote on me & 53% said strong leader” (@realDonaldTrump).
He interestingly split the message into two separate Tweets, drawing a lot of attention on this posting. Not only the fact that he is playfully attacking her, he is also mobilizing hatred against his other big enemy, the media. It can be greatly described that “Trump uses social media as a weapon to control the news cycle. It works like a charm. His Tweets are tactical rather than substantive” (Buncombe). His way of conveying words, his punctuation and the imprecise sentence structure are powerful framing devices which draw the attention on certain points which he might consider important and striking aspects. With the capitalized word “Fake” he is drawing the attention to, in his eyes, “fake news” and the media. Even though a reader might not fully be reading the whole Tweet, there is still a high chance of only perceiving the capitalised word. Additionally, the alliteration “and almost always negative” (@realDonaldTrump) shows his clear position and thus, forms a simple “us” and “them” position.
Trump presents Clinton as if she should be held responsible for whatever might reflect badly on her party due to an internal conflict between her and Trump. Another clear and linguistically powerful statement is his Tweet from the 31st of May 2017, when “Clinton said propaganda spread on sites such as Facebook helped cost her the election and that the Russian government wanted to spread disinformation about her. But she added they ‘could not have known how best to weaponized that information unless they had been guided’” (Ingram), on which he then based his Tweet on: “Crooked Hillary Clinton now blames everybody but herself, refuses to say she was a terrible candidate. Hits Facebook & even Dems & DNC” (@realDonaldTrump). In this Tweet, Trump makes “her look like a big liar” (Schonfeld) and clearly defines her as an enemy. Due to the sentence structure being split into three parts, his claim is in some sort of climatic order. This evokes an emotionally charged reaction from both, the attacked person, and from the readers of this Tweet. Clinton’s reaction to such allegations is a clear statement as she “slammed Trump’s ability to create distractions using Twitter” (Ingram). Ingram states that she additionally said: “It’s the circus, right? It’s what a classic authoritarian does”, which indicates that she perceives Trump as an authoritarian gaining control over public opinions with words by the means of using Twitter.
Adding onto the internal conflict between both, is a further Tweet from the 18th of November 2017, 375 days after the election (Schonfeld), when Trump claimed that: “Crooked Hillary Clinton is the worst (and biggest) loser of all time. She just can’t stop, which is so good for the Republican Party. Hillary, get on with your life and give it another try in three years!” (@realDonaldTrump). His use of superlatives makes the message sound greatly hyperbolic and exaggerated. With the apostrophe “Hillary”, he is directly addressing and attacking her. Adding to this, he is teasing her by saying that she should give it a second try to run for president thus, making it sound ridiculous and patronizing. This type of language can be compared to a colloquial language similar to a face to face communication. The use of non-democratic as well as non-professional language make the Tweets better understandable, conveniently reaching out to a wider target audience. This type of language is comprehensible for the general public from all different kind of education levels and backgrounds. Trump’s interaction with people on public display is without any precedent.
Trump’s Tweet written on the 31st of December 2017 is arguing that “Clinton would have decimated the stock market. Happy New Year!” (Schonfeld). By tweeting about the Stock Market, he targets businessmen and wants to get them on his side. The exact wording is: “If the Dems (Crooked Hillary) got elected, your stocks would be down 50% from values on Election Day. Now they have a great future – and just beginning” (@realDonaldTrump). Trump is praising himself for the stable economy in his country, showing how important it was for America that he got elected. The only reason for this Tweet to be posted is to mobilize hatred against Clinton because it actually didn’t matter anymore at this point to speculate what would have happened if Clinton was elected as president. Thus, the public is still heavily impacted by the hatred he is spreading against Clinton. Hence, the unstable political situation in America partly impacts America’s economy. Nevertheless, Trump once more targets Democrats in his Tweet on the 30th of October 2018: “… If you want your Stocks to go down, I strongly suggest voting Democrat. They like the Venezuela financial model, High Taxes & Open Borders!” (@realdDonaldTrump). Unlike other presidents before who “have shied away from too much stock gloating out of caution they could get blamed if things turn sour” (Earle), Trump regularly mentions the stock market. “Trump is very good at the usage of ‘fear appeal’ of pathos. In the case of Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Tweets lead to “the public’s bad impression of Hillary. For a candidate without political experience, Trump used his excellent language rhetoric and turned the other’s strengths into shortcomings” (Liu 25).
2. “To preserve the friendship of allies”
Another function of political propaganda, Harold Lasswell is suggesting, is “to preserve the friendship of allies” (“Analysing Trump's Tweets”). This can be applied in Trump’s Tweets about “giving out praise to a supporter (for example who apparently appeared on the Trump- friendly Fox & Friends TV show). The praise from the president clearly fits here.” (“Analysing Trump's Tweets”). On the 2nd of January 2018, Trump was tweeting: “Thank you to Brandon Judd of the National Border Patrol Council for your kind words on how well we are doing at the Border. We will be bringing in more & more of your great folks and will build the desperately needed WALL!” (@realDonaldTrump). Especially striking are the throughout positive and euphemistic words in this Tweet such as adjectives like “kind and great.” Moreover, with the exaggeration and the repetition of the word “more and more of your great folks” he is praising the worker of the Council and again, clearly defines the friendship of his allies but also, evidently specifies the enemy who are the people living on the other side of the wall. Thus, one can see that the Tweets do overlap in different types of areas, such as creating an enemy as well as preserving the friendship of allies. Besides that, by capitalizing the word “Wall” and his punctuation, he empathizes how “desperately they need the WALL” in order to protect his nation from the “evil”. With the adverb “desperately” added, there is not only a touch of a personal opinion rather a determined sentiment. “The style Trump is communicating with the public has become more personal, more instantaneous and frequently less verifiable” (Buncombe). He is highly praising the “good people” and strongly shows the need of a wall to protect themselves from “the enemies.” He is preserving the relationship to his voters and supporters showing the benefits of being on his side by especially working with emotional appeal in his phrasing to keep and attract them.
3. “To preserve the friendship and, if possible, to procure the cooperation of neutrals”
The third part of modern propaganda is “to preserve the friendship and, if possible, to procure the cooperation of neutrals” (“Analysing Trump's Tweets”). As an example, The Honest Broker suggests that Trump is “using generalities: companies and workers. That allows people to self-identify as perhaps fitting into these categories and thus, allowing themselves to receive the president’s praise: ‘Really Great’” (“Analysing Trump's Tweets”). Consequently, one might correctly argue that “he uses his virtual soapbox to promote a specific company” (Kamisar).
On the 2nd of January 2018 he posted: “Companies are giving big bonuses to their workers because of the Tax Cut Bill. Really great!” (@realDonaldTrump). “There is an unstated request for support here: you (workers) are benefiting from my action (Tax Cut Bill), so let’s be friends” (“Analysing Trump's Tweets”). What can already be identified out of the three ways of propaganda is that Trump is building up two fronts, dividing the audience: The ones who are supported by him in anyway and the ones he constantly fights. On January the 9th 2017 Trump tweeted: “Ford said last week that it will expand in Michigan and U.S. instead of building a BILLION dollar plant in Mexico. Thank you Ford & Fiat C!” (@realDonaldTrump). Ben Kamisar argues that “in a rare incident of Twitter praise, Trump applauded both automakers this month for deciding to make further investments in American plants instead of outsourcing.” Trump again uses capitalized letters and simplistic words to emphasise how redundant it would be to build production plants outside of America. However, the statement that building a plant in Mexico would cost “BILLION dollars” (@realDonaldTrump) is exaggerated, out of the context and not proven by any facts, which unnecessarily and prematurely “mobilizes hatred against the enemy”, i.e. Mexico, explaining what a disadvantage it would be for the US to build factories in Mexico. On the other side, he “preserves the friendship as well as procures the cooperation of neutrals” (“Analysing Trump's Tweets”), by praising neutral businesses highlighted by personally addressing the company as well as punctuating this sentence in a positive way by putting an exclamation mark at the end. This has a positive impact on US citizens as it tallies with Trump’s slogan to “Make America great Again!”. Nevertheless, neutral corporations are unwantedly mentioned in a Tweet by a controversial president which might have mixed impacts on that business.
4. “To demoralize the enemy”
The Honest Broker suggests that North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un would be a suitable example of how Trump “demoralizes the enemy” (“Analysing Trump's Tweets”). On the 3rd of January 2018 he posted: “North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.’ Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” (@realDonaldTrump). “In this much-discussed Tweet, Trump is reminding Kim Jung Un of the military prowess of the United States as compared to North Korea” (“Analysing Trump's Tweets”). Trump is being provocative, characterising North Korea’s citizens, including his regime, as “depleted and food starved people” (@realDonaldTrump) by using simple yet, strong and striking adjectives. Additionally, Trump is appealing to exceptionally be patronizing by using the comparative as well as a parallelism stating that his Nuclear Button is “much bigger & more powerful”. Having seen in the investigation, “short words, simple syntax and a folksy approach- has long been a winner for presidents” (Leith).
One reaction evoked by Trump’s Tweet is a Tweet by Kentucky Fried Chicken United Kingdom and Ireland. On response to Trump’s Tweet to North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, KFC sent out a corresponding Tweet “using similar language to the president’s tweeted threat in a conflict with one of its own rivals: McDonald’s” (“Inside Edition”). “McDonald’s leader Ronald just stated he has a ‘burger on his desk at all times.’ Will someone from his big shoed, red nosed regime inform him that I too have a burger on my desk, but mine is a box meal which is bigger and more powerful than his, and mine has gravy! #nuclearbutton” (@KFC_UKI). This clearly is a sarcastic reaction towards Trump’s Tweet, making the serious situation look less serious. Lauren Gambino from the Guardian wrote in her article that “the president’s Tweet drew swift condemnation- and some snark- from Democrats and foreign policy experts. Democratic congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut, reacting on CNN, said a more sobering consequence of Trump’s hyperbolic rhetoric is that ‘it really doesn’t matter what the president of the United States says anymore because it’s so bizarre, strange, not true, infantile’. Eliot Cohen, a former top official in the George W Bush administration and a Trump critic, said the president’s pronouncement was ‘spoken like a petulant 10- year-old’”.
What can already be seen is that Trump “just like the mob, likes to dole out nicknames to his opponents” (Lavelle) such as “Crooked Hillary, Little Rocket Man and Crazy Bernie” to demoralise and dehumanise them. These nicknames are all neologisms and puns which instantly burn into the reader’s mind “directly hitting the opponent’s weaknesses. These nicknames’ meanings are short but obvious, so that the audience can easily understand. In addition, the discourse of Trump’s Twitter includes humour appeal because he believes this would improve his persuasiveness. When Trump adds a sense of humour, it makes the public aware of an issue and therefore, easier to understand and accept it. The public then agrees with his point of view and increases the sympathy for Trump. The aim of this sense of humour is to make the audience be comfortable to accept Trump’s point of view” (Liu 24, 25, 26), no matter what he has written thus, those names are there to entertain the reader for a specific purpose and to demoralise the nickname owner.
Conclusion:
Reflecting back to the research question it can be concluded that Trump’s Tweets have a global impact. “Trump’s rhetoric is a triumph of inarticulacy” (Leith), yet in terms of world-wide attention and effect very successful. “On a purely linguistic level, three things seem striking:
• Trump uses a pretty small working vocabulary.
• His syntax, spelling and punctuation are- in conventional terms – a catastrophe.
• The workhorses of his rhetoric are charged but empty adjectives and adverbs.” (Leith)
Trump’s Tweets might often be controversial but they still have a great impact on politics and the society nowadays. Recent developments, like the mail bombs and the synagogue shooting, show that the public and particularly his supporters, impacted by his strong rhetoric, react aggressively. It evidently shows that “Trump has fuelled a climate of hatred in general” (Smith) due to “his polarising rhetoric” (Baldacci and Ahmed). Especially striking is the “logic of Trump that the society is divided into two groups which is the ‘we’ and ‘they’ groups forming two opposing groups” (Liu 36). Trump places himself in the “we” group and everyone else who opposes him in the “they” group. He sees himself as the “people’s president” however, the wording of his Tweets might allow to question this as they rather divide the society than unifies. Ethos and pathos play an important role to conclude the online behaviour of Trump. It is evident that “Trump is also very good at the usage of ‘fear appeal’ of pathos. Trump’s frequently used rhetorical strategies like ethos and pathos on Twitter. For ‘ethos’, in the user’s words can clearly be seen all the ‘authority’ concepts. The relationship that is maintained or established in the real world is still the same in the virtual world. For ‘pathos’, the nature of Twitter makes it become a dominant factor in social networks” (Liu 25, 34). The four different functions of propaganda suggest by Lasswell not only show that Trump is using Twitter as a political platform to spread propaganda moreover, it shows that the propaganda areas have not changed, rather the way of conveying the message. Having read his Tweets, I frequently asked myself to what extent those are just random thoughts and what has been deliberately posted, or if the many random thoughts themselves eventually, form a general pattern creating an overarching strategy.
Works cited:
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@realDonaldTrump. “Companies are giving big bonuses to their workers because of the Tax Cut Bill. Really great!” Twitter, 2 Jan. 2018, 5:49 a.m., https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/948189482284707840?lang=en. Accessed 3 Nov. 2018.
@realDonaldTrump. “Crooked Hillary Clinton is the worst (and biggest) loser of all time. She just can’t stop, which is so good for the Republican Party. Hillary, get on with your life and give it another try in three years!” Twitter, 18 Nov. 2017, 5:31 a.m., https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/931877599034388480?lang=en. Accessed 3 Nov. 2018.
@realDonaldTrump. “Crooked Hillary Clinton now blames everybody but herself, refuses to say she was a terrible candidate. Hits Facebook & even Dems & DNC.” Twitter, 31 May 2017, 5:40 p.m., https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/870077441401905152?lang=en. Accessed 3 Nov. 2018.
@realDonaldTrump. “Ford said last week that it will expand in Michigan and U.S. instead of building a BILLION dollar plant in Mexico. Thank you Ford & Fiat C!” Twitter, 9 Jan. 2017, 6:16 a.m., https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/818461467766824961?lang=en. Accessed 3 Nov. 2018.
@realDonaldTrump. “If the Dems (Crooked Hillary) got elected, your stocks would be down 50% from values on Election Day. Now they have a great future - and just beginning!” Twitter, 31 Dec. 2017, 5:26 a.m., https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/947458942719979520?lang=en. Accessed 3 Nov. 2018.
@realDonaldTrump. “New polls out today are very good considering that much of the media is FAKE and almost always negative. Would still beat Hillary in .....” Twitter, 23 April 2017, 12:48 p.m., https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/856233279841849344?lang=en. Accessed 3 Nov. 2018.
@realDonaldTrump. “North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” Twitter, 2 Jan 2018, 4:49 p.m., https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/948355557022420992?lang=en. Accessed 3 Nov. 2018.
@realDonaldTrump. “...popular vote. ABC News/Washington Post Poll (wrong big on election) said almost all stand by their vote on me & 53% said strong leader.” Twitter, 23 April 2017, 12:55 p.m., https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/856234989591121922?lang=en. Accessed 3 Nov. 2018.
@realDonaldTrump. “Thank you to Brandon Judd of the National Border Patrol Council for your kind words on how well we are doing at the Border. We will be bringing in more & more of your great folks and will build the desperately needed WALL! @foxandfriends.” Twitter, 2 Jan. 2018, 5:44 a.m., https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/948188264858603520. Accessed 3 Nov. 2018.
@realDonaldTrump. “The Stock Market is up massively since the Election, but is now taking a little pause - people want to see what happens with the Midterms. If you want your Stocks to go down, I strongly suggest voting Democrat. They like the Venezuela financial model, High Taxes & Open Borders!” Twitter, 30 Oct. 2018, 5:33 a.m., https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1057249169507803137. Accessed 3. Nov. 2018.
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Appendix:
Coding System:
• Capitalized words
• Stylistic devices such as alliteration, repetition, etc.
• Punctuation
• Words emphasising a personal opinion, e.g. by using superlatives etc., negative or positive wording, speculations
• Nicknames given by Donald J. Trump
• Directly addressing other people, parties or stakeholders; forming “us” and “them” position
1. “To mobilize hatred against the enemy” (“Analysing Trump's Tweets”):
“New polls out today are very good considering that much of the media is FAKE and almost always negative. Would still beat Hillary in……” (@realDonaldTrump)
“...popular vote. ABC News/Washington Post Poll (wrong big on election) said almost all stand by their vote on me & 53% said strong leader” (@realDonaldTrump).
“Crooked Hillary Clinton now blames everybody but herself, refuses to say she was a terrible candidate. Hits Facebook & even Dems & DNC” (@realDonaldTrump).
“Crooked Hillary Clinton is the worst (and biggest) loser of all time. She just can’t stop, which is so good for the Republican Party. Hillary, get on with your life and give it another try in three years!” (@realDonaldTrump)
“If the Dems (Crooked Hillary) got elected, your stocks would be down 50% from values on Election Day. Now they have a great future – and just beginning” (@realDonaldTrump).
“The Stock Market is up massively since the Election, but is now taking a little pause - people want to see what happens with the Midterms. If you want your Stocks to go down, I strongly suggest voting Democrat. They like the Venezuela financial model, High Taxes & Open Borders!” (@realDonaldTrump)
2. “To preserve the friendship of allies” (“Analysing Trump's Tweets”):
“Thank you to Brandon Judd of the National Border Patrol Council for your kind words on how well we are doing at the Border. We will be bringing in more & more of your great folks and will build the desperately needed WALL!” (@realDonaldTrump)
3. “To preserve the friendship and, if possible, to procure the cooperation of neutrals” (“Analysing Trump's Tweets”):
“Companies are giving big bonuses to their workers because of the Tax Cut Bill. Really great!” (@realDonaldTrump)
“Ford said last week that it will expand in Michigan and U.S. instead of building a BILLION dollar plant in Mexico. Thank you Ford & Fiat C!” (@realDonaldTrump).
4. “To demoralize the enemy” (“Analysing Trump's Tweets”):
“North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.’ Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” (@realDonaldTrump)
