Donald Trump's rhetoric

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Donald Trump speaking at one of his rallies in Arizona, October 2020

The political rhetoric of Donald Trump has been scrutinized in an extensive body of reporting and analysis by linguists, political commentators and others.[1]

Overview[edit]

Trump's rhetoric has its roots in a populist political method that suggests nationalistic answers to political, economic, and social problems.[2] It employs absolutist framings and threat narratives[3] characterized by a rejection of the political establishment.[4] His absolutist rhetoric emphasizes non-negotiable boundaries and moral outrage at their supposed violation,[5] and heavily favors crowd reaction over veracity, with a large number of falsehoods which Trump presents as facts.[6] Trump's scenic construction (introduction of characters and setting stage depicting an issue) uses black and white terms like "totally", "absolutely", "every", "complete", and "forever" to describe malevolent forces, or the coming victory. For example, Trump described John Kerry as a "total disaster", and said that Obamacare would "destroy American health care forever". Kenneth Burke referred to this type of "all or none" staging as characteristic of "burlesque" rhetoric.[7] This rhetorical pattern within a Trump rally is common for authoritarian movements. First, it elicits a sense of depression, humiliation and victimhood. Second, it separates the world into two opposing groups: a relentlessly demonized set of others versus those who have the power and will to overcome them.[8] This involves vividly identifying the enemy supposedly causing the current state of affairs and then promoting paranoid conspiracy theories and fearmongering to inflame fear and anger. After cycling these first two patterns through the populace, the final message aims to produce a cathartic release of pent-up ochlocracy and mob energy, with a promise that salvation is at hand because there is a powerful leader who will deliver the nation back to its former glory.[9]

Analysis[edit]

Trump uses rhetoric that political scientists have deemed to be both dehumanizing and connected to physical violence by his followers.[10] Neville Hoad, an expert on gender studies, described Trump's rhetoric as violent, listing examples such as "grab them by the pussy" "locker room" "jokes" to misogynist insults, philandering, and even sexual predatory behavior where Trump is able to turn allegations of groping and raping into political assets rather than liabilities.[11] Sociologist Arlie Hochschild states that emotional themes in Trump's rhetoric are fundamental, writing that his "speeches—evoking dominance, bravado, clarity, national pride, and personal uplift—inspire an emotional transformation," deeply resonating with their "emotional self-interest".[12][13] One study suggests that significant environmental deregulation occurred during the first year of the Trump administration due to its concurrent use of spectacular racist rhetoric but escaped much media attention. According to the authors, this served political objectives of dehumanizing its targets, eroding democratic norms, and consolidating power by emotionally connecting with and inflaming resentments among the base of followers, but most importantly served to distract media attention from deregulatory policymaking by igniting intense media coverage of the distractions, precisely due to their radically transgressive nature.[14]

According to civil rights lawyer Burt Neuborne and political theorist William E. Connolly, Trump's rhetoric employs tropes similar to those used by fascists in Germany[15] to persuade citizens (at first a minority) to give up democracy, by using a barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, personal invective, threats, xenophobia, national-security scares, religious bigotry, white racism, exploitation of economic insecurity, and a never-ending search for scapegoats.[16] Connolly presents a similar list in his book Aspirational Fascism (2017), adding comparisons of the integration of theatrics and crowd participation with rhetoric, involving grandiose bodily gestures, grimaces, hysterical charges, dramatic repetitions of alternate reality falsehoods, and totalistic assertions incorporated into signature phrases that audiences are strongly encouraged to join in chanting.[17] Despite the similarities, Connolly stresses that Trump is no Nazi but "is rather, an aspirational fascist who pursues crowd adulation, hyperaggressive nationalism, white triumphalism, and militarism, pursues a law-and-order regime giving unaccountable power to the police, and is a practitioner of a rhetorical style that regularly creates fake news and smears opponents to mobilize support for the Big Lies he advances."[15]

Trumpisms[edit]

This article is part of
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Donald Trump's signature

Seal of the President of the United States

Trumpisms or Trump-speak are the mannerisms, rhetoric, and characteristic phrases or statements of former U.S. President Donald Trump.[18][19] They have been described as colorful comments that "only Trump could get away with".[20][21] By 2016, Politico observed that what used to be called Trump's gaffes now had the official designation of "Trumpisms".[22][23] They have become well-known and are the subject of numerous comedic impersonations that imitate Trump's confident exaggerations and general lack of detail.[24][25] An MIT student built a Twitter bot that used artificial intelligence to parody the President with "remarkably Trump-like statements".[26] Artificial intelligence has also been used to analyze Trump-speak.[27] Trump's children have acknowledged his atypical speech patterns, with both Ivanka and Eric Trump stating that they share some of their father's Trumpisms.[28]

Journalist Emily Greenhouse noted in a 2023 Bloomberg article that Trump may be most quotable man in politics and highlighted the following example:[29]

I'm the most successful person ever to run for the presidency, by far. Nobody's ever been more successful than me. I'm the most successful person ever to run. Ross Perot isn't successful like me. Romney—I have a Gucci store that's worth more than Romney.[30]

Trumpisms frequently come in the form of insults directed at his critics, labeling them "dogs", "losers", and "enemies of the people".[31][32]

Falsehoods[edit]

This section is an excerpt from False or misleading statements by Donald Trump.[edit]
Fact-checkers from The Washington Post[33] (top, monthly), the Toronto Star[34] and CNN[35][36] (bottom, weekly) compiled data on "false or misleading claims", and "false claims", respectively. The peaks corresponded in late 2018 to the midterm elections, in late 2019 to his impeachment inquiry, and in late 2020 to the presidential election. The Post reported 30,573 false or misleading claims in four years,[33] an average of more than 20.9 per day.
This article is part of
a series about
Donald Trump
Business and personal
45th President of the United States
Tenure
Policies
Appointments
Presidential campaigns
Impeachments
Prosecutions
Interactions involving Russia
COVID-19 pandemic

Donald Trump's signature

Seal of the President of the United States

During his term as President of the United States, Donald Trump made tens of thousands of false or misleading claims. The Washington Post's fact-checkers documented 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidential term, an average of about 21 per day.[33][37][38][39] The Toronto Star tallied 5,276 false claims from January 2017 to June 2019, an average of 6.1 per day.[34] Commentators and fact-checkers have described the scale of Trump's mendacity as "unprecedented" in American politics,[45] and the consistency of falsehoods a distinctive part of his business and political identities.[46] Scholarly analysis of Trump's tweets found "significant evidence" of an intent to deceive.[47]

By June 2019, after initially resisting, many news organizations began to describe some of his falsehoods as "lies".[48] The Washington Post said his frequent repetition of claims he knew to be false amounted to a campaign based on disinformation.[49] Trump campaign CEO and presidency chief strategist Steve Bannon said that the press, rather than Democrats, was Trump's primary adversary and "the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit."[50][51]

As part of their attempts to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Trump and his allies repeatedly falsely claimed there had been massive election fraud and that Trump had won the election.[39] Their effort was characterized by some as an implementation of the big lie propaganda technique.[52]

On June 8, 2023, a grand jury indicted Trump on one count of making "false statements and representations", specifically by hiding subpoenaed classified documents from his own attorney who was trying to find and return them to the government.[53] In August 2023, 21 of Trump's falsehoods about the 2020 election were listed in his Washington, D.C. indictment,[54] while 27 were listed in his Georgia indictment.[55]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Collinson, Stephen (2023-11-14). "Analysis: Trump's extreme rhetoric conjures the prospect of a presidency like no other | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved 2023-12-14.
  2. ^ Rowland, Robert C. (2019). "The Populist and Nationalist Roots of Trump's Rhetoric". Rhetoric and Public Affairs. 22 (3): 343–388. doi:10.14321/rhetpublaffa.22.3.0343. ISSN 1094-8392. JSTOR 10.14321/rhetpublaffa.22.3.0343. S2CID 211443408.
  3. ^ Marietta, Morgan; Farley, Tyler; Cote, Tyler; Murphy, Paul (2017-07-26). "The Rhetorical Psychology of Trumpism: Threat, Absolutism, and the Absolutist Threat". The Forum. 15 (2): 330. doi:10.1515/for-2017-0019. ISSN 1540-8884.
  4. ^ Tarnoff, Ben (2016-11-09). "The triumph of Trumpism: the new politics that is here to stay". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  5. ^ Marietta, Morgan; Farley, Tyler; Cote, Tyler; Murphy, Paul (2017-07-26). "The Rhetorical Psychology of Trumpism: Threat, Absolutism, and the Absolutist Threat". The Forum. 15 (2): 313, 317. doi:10.1515/for-2017-0019. ISSN 1540-8884.
  6. ^ Kessler, Glenn; Kelly, Meg (2021-12-07). "Analysis | President Trump has made more than 2,000 false or misleading claims over 355 days". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  7. ^ Appel, Edward C. (2018-03-15). "Burlesque, Tragedy, and a (Potentially) "Yuuuge" "Breaking of a Frame": Donald Trump's Rhetoric as "Early Warning"?". Communication Quarterly. 66 (2): 157–175. doi:10.1080/01463373.2018.1439515. ISSN 0146-3373.
  8. ^ Löwenthal, Leo; Guterman, Norbert (1970) [1949]. Prophets of Deceit: A Study of the Techniques of the American Agitator (PDF). New York: Harper & Brothers. p. 93. ISBN 978-0870151828. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
  9. ^ Smith, David Livingstone (2020). On inhumanity: dehumanization and how to resist it. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-19-092302-0.
  10. ^ Nacos, Brigitte L.; Shapiro, Robert Y.; Bloch-Elkon, Yaeli (2020). "Donald Trump: Aggressive Rhetoric and Political Violence". Perspectives on Terrorism. 14 (5): 2–25. ISSN 2334-3745. JSTOR 26940036.
  11. ^ Hoad, Neville (2020-10-01). "Big man sovereignty and sexual politics in pandemic time". Safundi. 21 (4): 433–455. doi:10.1080/17533171.2020.1832801. ISSN 1753-3171.
  12. ^ Hochschild, Arlie Russel (2016). Strangers in their own land: anger and mourning on the American right. New York London: The new press. ISBN 978-1-62097-225-0.
  13. ^ Thompson, Derek (2020-12-29). "The Deep Story of Trumpism". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  14. ^ Pulido, Laura; Bruno, Tianna; Faiver-Serna, Cristina; Galentine, Cassandra (2019-03-04). "Environmental Deregulation, Spectacular Racism, and White Nationalism in the Trump Era". Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 109 (2): 520–532. doi:10.1080/24694452.2018.1549473. ISSN 2469-4452.
  15. ^ a b Connolly, William E. (2017). Aspirational fascism: the struggle for multifaceted democracy under Trumpism. Forerunners. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-5179-0512-5.
  16. ^ Neuborne, Burt (2019). When at Times the Mob is Swayed: A Citizen's Guide to Defending Our Republic. New Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-62097-358-5.
  17. ^ Connolly, William E. (2017). Aspirational fascism: the struggle for multifaceted democracy under Trumpism. Forerunners. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-5179-0512-5.
  18. ^ Homolar, Alexandra; Scholz, Ronny (2019-05-04). "The power of Trump-speak: populist crisis narratives and ontological security". Cambridge Review of International Affairs. 32 (3): 344–364. doi:10.1080/09557571.2019.1575796. ISSN 0955-7571. S2CID 150639180.
  19. ^ Bradner, Eric; Mattingly, Phill (2016-06-06). "GOP to Trump: Stop alienating Latinos". CNN. Archived from the original on 2023-04-06. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  20. ^ Phillips, Amber. "The 6 Trumpisms Donald Trump will trumpet in the Trump debate". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2023-02-22. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  21. ^ "6 'Trumpisms' that would mean a political end for anyone but Trump". PBS NewsHour. 2015-09-06. Archived from the original on 2023-02-22. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  22. ^ "The 155 Craziest Things Trump Said This Election". POLITICO Magazine. 5 November 2016. Archived from the original on 2022-12-02. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  23. ^ "Mythbuster: What Donald Trump didn't say about Africa". BBC News. 2016-11-11. Archived from the original on 2023-04-07. Retrieved 2023-04-06.
  24. ^ Mascaro, Lisa (2016-09-12). "'Believe me': People say Trump's language is affecting political discourse 'bigly'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2023-03-01. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  25. ^ Stieb, Matt (2022-08-25). "Jamie Foxx Is Secretly a World-Class Trump Impersonator". Intelligencer. Archived from the original on 2023-04-06. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  26. ^ Misener, Dan (2016-10-25). "Twitter bot creates 'remarkably Trump-like' tweets". CBC. Archived from the original on 2023-03-05. Retrieved 2023-03-05.
  27. ^ Bierman, Noah (2020-05-07). "Can't decipher Trump-speak? Meet Margaret, the computer bot". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2023-03-18. Retrieved 2023-03-05.
  28. ^ Effron, Lauren (2015-11-19). "Donald Trump's Children Dish on Their Dad's 'Trumpisms' and What They Think of His Hair". ABC News. Archived from the original on 2023-02-11. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  29. ^ Greenhouse, Emily (2015-06-01). "Donald Trump: 'I'm the Most Successful Person Ever to Run for the Presidency'". Bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on 2023-04-01. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  30. ^ Hafner, Josh. "Trump: I won't do straw poll if everyone backs out". The Des Moines Register. Archived from the original on 2023-04-16. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  31. ^ Glasser, Susan B. (2019-10-24). "On "Human Scum" and Trump in the Danger Zone". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2023-03-05. Retrieved 2023-03-05.
  32. ^ Pappas, Stephanie (2016-02-25). "Trumpisms: Political Insults Erode Voters' Faith". Live Science. Archived from the original on 2023-03-05. Retrieved 2023-03-05.
  33. ^ a b c Fact Checker (January 20, 2021). "In four years, President Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021.
  34. ^ a b Dale, Daniel (June 5, 2019). "Donald Trump has now said more than 5,000 false things as president". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on October 3, 2019.
  35. ^ Dale, Daniel (March 9, 2020). "Trump is averaging about 59 false claims per week since ... July 8, 2019". CNN. Archived from the original on March 9, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2020. (direct link to chart image)
  36. ^ Dale, Daniel; Subramaniam, Tara (March 9, 2020). "Donald Trump made 115 false claims in the last two weeks of February". CNN. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
  37. ^ Kessler, Glenn (January 23, 2021). "Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims as president. Nearly half came in his final year". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  38. ^ Elfrink, Tim (August 14, 2020). "'Do you regret at all, all the lying you've done?': A reporter's blunt question to Trump goes unanswered". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  39. ^ a b Higgins, Andrew (January 10, 2021). "The Art of the Lie? The Bigger the Better – Lying as a political tool is hardly new. But a readiness, even enthusiasm, to be deceived has become a driving force in politics around the world, most recently in the United States". The New York Times. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  40. ^ Kessler, Glenn (December 30, 2018). "A year of unprecedented deception: Trump averaged 15 false claims a day in 2018". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 19, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
  41. ^ McGranahan, Carole (May 2017). "An anthropology of lying: Trump and the political sociality of moral outrage". American Ethnologist. 44 (2): 243–248. doi:10.1111/amet.12475. Retrieved October 1, 2022. It has long been a truism that politicians lie, but with the entry of Donald Trump into the U.S. political domain, the frequency, degree, and impact of lying in politics are now unprecedented [...] Donald Trump is different. By all metrics and counting schemes, his lies are off the charts. We simply have not seen such an accomplished and effective liar before in U.S. politics.
  42. ^ Skjeseth, Heidi Taksdal (2017). "All the president's lies: Media coverage of lies in the US and France" (PDF). Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Retrieved October 1, 2022. ... a president who is delivering untruths on an unprecedented scale. Mr Trump did this both while running for president, and he has continued to do so in office. There is no precedent for this amount of untruths in the US
  43. ^ Baker, Peter (March 17, 2018). "Trump and the Truth: A President Tests His Own Credibility". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 21, 2018. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
  44. ^ Dale, Daniel (October 22, 2018). "Donald Trump's strategy as midterms approach: lies and fear-mongering". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on October 23, 2018. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
  45. ^ [40][41][42][43][44]
  46. ^ Glasser, Susan B. (August 3, 2018). "It's True: Trump Is Lying More, and He's Doing It on Purpose". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on October 23, 2018. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
  47. ^ Davis, Dorian; Sinnreich, Aram (May 14, 2020). "Beyond Fact-Checking: Lexical Patterns as Lie Detectors in Donald Trump's Tweets". International Journal of Communication. Retrieved June 12, 2023. Analyzing Trump's tweets with a regression function designed to predict true and false claims based on their language and composition, it finds significant evidence of intent underlying most of Trump's false claims, and makes the case for calling them lies when that outcome agrees with the results of traditional fact-checking procedures.
  48. ^ Farhi, Paul (June 5, 2019). "Lies? The news media is starting to describe Trump's 'falsehoods' that way". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 7, 2019. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
  49. ^ Kessler, Glenn (December 10, 2018). "Meet the Bottomless Pinocchio, a new rating for a false claim repeated over and over again". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 18, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
  50. ^ Remnick, David (July 30, 2018). "Trump vs. the Times: Inside an Off-the-Record Meeting". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  51. ^ Illing, Sean (January 16, 2020). ""Flood the zone with shit": How misinformation overwhelmed our democracy". Vox.
  52. ^ Multiple sources:
  53. ^ "Trump's 2nd indictment: Read the full document text". Politico. 2023-06-09. pp. 40–41. Retrieved 2023-06-10.
  54. ^ Dale, Daniel (2023-08-02). "21 Donald Trump election lies listed in his new indictment". CNN Politics. Retrieved 2023-08-02.
  55. ^ Dale, Daniel (2023-08-16). "27 Donald Trump election lies listed in his Georgia indictment". CNN. Retrieved 2023-08-19.
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