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Business and personal 45th President of the United States Tenure Impeachments Prosecutions Interactions involving Russia | ||
The political rhetoric of Donald Trump, the president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, has been examined in an extensive body of reporting and analysis by linguists, political scientists, and others. [1] Generally categorized as populist, emotional, and antagonistic, Trump's style of rhetoric has been identified as a central reason behind his persuasiveness. [2] Trump's rhetoric, mannerisms, statements and idiolect have been described as Trumpisms and Trumpspeak.
Trump's rhetoric has its roots in a populist political method that suggests nationalistic answers to political, economic, and social problems. [3] It employs absolutist framings and threat narratives [4] characterized by a rejection of the political establishment. [5] His absolutist rhetoric emphasizes non-negotiable boundaries and moral outrage at their supposed violation, [6] and heavily favors crowd reaction over veracity, with a large number of falsehoods which Trump presents as facts, [7] which have been described as using the big lie, [8] and firehose of falsehood propaganda technique. [9]
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. [10]
Trump uses rhetoric that political scientists have deemed to be both dehumanizing and connected to physical violence by his followers. [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 the use of spectacular racist rhetoric aided in the significant environmental deregulation that occurred during the first year of the Trump administration. 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 or Trump-speak are the mannerisms, rhetoric, and characteristic phrases or statements of former President 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 2015 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]
This section needs expansionwith: more journal articles about the methods, tactics, and social psychology used by Trump while making violent and dehumanizing statements. More details about Trump's 2016 campaign, presidency, and 2020 campaign. You can help by adding to it. (March 2024) |
Trump's rhetoric has been described as using " Argumentum ad baculum," or an appeal to force and intimidation to coerce behavior. [33] Trump has been noted to use either direct or veiled comments with plausible deniability suggesting the possibility of violence by his supporters. [34]
Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign announcement has been criticized for its dehumanizing rhetoric about Mexican immigrants with his comments that "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best ... They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with [them]. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." [35] [36]
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Trump routinely used the phrases "China virus" and "Kung flu" which were scrutinized due to their perceived insensitivity to the rising hate crimes against Asian Americans. [37] [38] Trump also criticized Antifa and BLM protestors in language that some found concerning. [39] [40] Trump also repeatedly criticized election methods (especially mail-in voting) in certain states which led to election workers being harassed. [41]
Trump's 2024 campaign has been noted for using increasingly dehumanizing and violent rhetoric against his political enemies. [42] [43] [44] [45] Examples include Trump calling for shoplifters to be shot and for Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff appointed by him, to be executed for treason. He also made fun of the hammer attack that critically injured the husband of the then House speaker Nancy Pelosi. [43] Throughout his 2024 campaign, Trump has repeatedly attacked the witlessness, judges, and families of individuals involved in his criminal trials. [46] [47] Trump has repeatedly attacked law enforcement in relation to their criminal investigations into his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents, [48] calling them "political monsters," telling people to "go after" New York attorney general Letitia James, and warning that an indictment against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg would bring "potential death and destruction," among other comments, [49] which have all raised concerns over officers' physical safety. [50]
While discussing the auto industry in a rally on March 16, 2024, Trump promised to place tariffs on cars manufactured abroad if he won the election, adding "Now, if I don't get elected, it's going to be a ... blood bath for the country." [51] [52] On March 30, 2024, Trump was criticized for posting a video on his social media showing a hog-tied Joe Biden. [53]
Trump has used Nazi racial hygiene rhetoric and has stated multiple times since fall 2023 [54] that undocumented immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country", language echoing white supremacists and Adolf Hitler. [44] [55] [56] [57] Trump's anti-immigration tone is noted to have grown harsher from his previous time as president, where, as reported in The New York Times , he "privately mused about developing a militarized border like Israel’s, asked whether migrants crossing the border could be shot in the legs and wanted a proposed border wall topped with flesh-piercing spikes and painted black to burn migrants’ skin." Other rhetoric from his 2024 campaign includes statements that foreign leaders are deliberately emptying insane asylums to send "prisoners, murders, drug dealers, mental patients, terrorists" [58] across America's southern border as migrants, and comparing migrants to the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter. [59] Trump has repeatedly claimed that undocumented immigrants are "not people," [60] "not humans," [61] and "animals." [52] Trump has described immigrants as deadly snakes during his rallies, repurposing lyrics from the 1968 song "The Snake." [57]
In a campaign speech and social media post, Trump called some of his political opponents "vermin", promising to "root out" the "communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections". [45] [62] [63] The term “vermin” was used by dictators Hitler and Benito Mussolini and in Nazi propaganda to dehumanize people, and Trump said they were a greater threat to the United States than countries such as Russia, China, and North Korea. [45] [62] Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded to criticism by saying:
Those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, and their sad, miserable existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House. [62]
According to The New York Times, scholars are undecided about whether Trump's "rhetorical turn into more fascist-sounding territory is just his latest public provocation of the left, an evolution in his beliefs, or the dropping of a veil." Experts say that Trump "exhibits traits similar to current strongmen like Viktor Orban of Hungary or Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey." [64]
During and after his term as President of the United States, 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. [65] [66] [67] [68] The Toronto Star tallied 5,276 false claims from January 2017 to June 2019, an average of 6.1 per day. [69] Commentators and fact-checkers have described the scale of Trump's mendacity as "unprecedented" in American politics, [75] and the consistency of falsehoods a distinctive part of his business and political identities. [76] Scholarly analysis of Trump's tweets found "significant evidence" of an intent to deceive.
By June 2019, after initially resisting, many news organizations began to describe some of his falsehoods as "lies". [77] The Washington Post said his frequent repetition of claims he knew to be false amounted to a campaign based on disinformation. [78] 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." [79] [80]
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. [68] Their effort has been characterized as an implementation of the big lie propaganda technique, [8] and has been described as a "firehose of falsehood." [9]
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. [81] In August 2023, 21 of Trump's falsehoods about the 2020 election were listed in his Washington, D.C. indictment, [82] while 27 were listed in his Georgia indictment. [83]
In what Philip Rucker describes as "an apparent nod" to Trump, former FBI Director James Comey reflects on "the psychology of liars". Comey recalls being a prosecutor against the Mafia, his time in the Trump administration, and the loyalty pledge he was asked to make but refused:
The silent circle of assent. The boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The us-versus-them worldview. The lying about all things, large and small, in service to some code of loyalty that put the organization above morality and above the truth.... [Liars] lose the ability to distinguish between what's true and what's not," Comey writes. "They surround themselves with other liars.... Perks and access are given to those willing to lie and tolerate lies. This creates a culture, which becomes an entire way of life." [84]
The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American multinational conservative news and political commentary television channel and website based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owned by the Fox Corporation. It is the most-watched cable news network in the U.S., and as of 2023 generates approximately 70% of its parent company's pre-tax profit. The channel broadcasts primarily from studios at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan. Fox News provides a service to 86 countries and territories, with international broadcasts featuring Fox Extra segments during advertising breaks.
A big lie is a gross distortion or misrepresentation of the truth primarily used as a political propaganda technique. The German expression was first used by Adolf Hitler in his book Mein Kampf (1925) to describe how people could be induced to believe so colossal a lie because they would not believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously". Hitler claimed that the technique had been used by Jews to blame Germany's loss in World War I on German general Erich Ludendorff, who was a prominent nationalist political leader in the Weimar Republic.
Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson is an American conservative political commentator and writer who hosted the nightly political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News from 2016 to 2023. Since his contract with Fox News was terminated, he has hosted Tucker on X. An advocate of former U.S. President Donald Trump, Carlson has been described as "perhaps the highest-profile proponent of Trumpism", and as "the most influential voice in right-wing media, without a close second."
Stuart A. Varney is a British-American talk show host and conservative political commentator who works for Fox News and the Fox Business Network. Born in the United Kingdom, he worked as a journalist before joining Fox News in January 2004 as a business contributor, such as on Your World with Neil Cavuto.
Donald John Trump is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Thomas J. Fitton is an American conservative activist and the president of Judicial Watch.
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Ronny Lynn Jackson is an American physician, politician, and former United States Navy rear admiral, retroactively retired in the grade of captain. He is the U.S. representative for Texas's 13th congressional district.
During and after 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. The Toronto Star tallied 5,276 false claims from January 2017 to June 2019, an average of 6.1 per day. Commentators and fact-checkers have described the scale of Trump's mendacity as "unprecedented" in American politics, and the consistency of falsehoods a distinctive part of his business and political identities. Scholarly analysis of Trump's tweets found "significant evidence" of an intent to deceive.
The net worth of Donald Trump is not publicly known. Forbes has estimated his wealth for decades and estimates it at $7.1 billion as of March 2024, with Trump making much higher claims. Trump received gifts, loans, and inheritance from his father. His primary business has been real estate ventures, including hotels, casinos, and golf courses. He also made money from Trump-branded products including neckties and steaks. Money received through political fundraisers is used to pay for guest stays at properties owned by the Trump Organization and to pay his and his allies' lawyers.
Daniel Dale is a Canadian journalist known for rebutting a large number of false claims made by United States President Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign and presidency. Dale credits an encounter with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford while covering the mayor and his brother Doug for the Toronto Star as the inspiration for developing his brand of adversarial journalism.
The firehose of falsehood is a propaganda technique in which a large number of messages are broadcast rapidly, repetitively, and continuously over multiple channels without regard for truth or consistency. An outgrowth of Soviet propaganda techniques, the firehose of falsehood is a contemporary model for Russian propaganda under Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Donald C. Bolduc is a retired brigadier general of the United States Army. The Republican nominee in the 2022 U.S. Senate election in New Hampshire, he lost to incumbent Democrat Maggie Hassan. Bolduc was also a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2020, but did not win the primary.
The Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory is a series of false allegations that Joe Biden, while he was vice president of the United States, improperly withheld a loan guarantee and took a bribe to pressure Ukraine into firing prosecutor general Viktor Shokin to prevent a corruption investigation of Ukrainian gas company Burisma and to protect his son, Hunter Biden, who was on the Burisma board. As part of efforts by Donald Trump and his campaign in the Trump–Ukraine scandal, which led to Trump's first impeachment, these falsehoods were spread in an attempt to damage Joe Biden's reputation and chances during the 2020 presidential campaign, and later in an effort to impeach him.
Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, announced his campaign for a nonconsecutive second presidential term in the 2024 U.S. presidential election on November 15, 2022.
Donald Trump, the president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, has elicited highly polarized public perceptions about his performance as a head of state and largely negative opinions about his temperament and personal conduct while in office. Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality famous for his image as a real estate tycoon. Although viewed as a heroic figure by many of his supporters, Trump has widely been seen as a business "huckster" and has been the frequent butt of jokes.
Protect Democracy is a nonprofit organization based in the United States. A nonpartisan group, Protect Democracy seeks to check what it believes are authoritarian attacks on U.S. democracy.
A truth sandwich is a technique in journalism to cover stories involving misinformation without unintentionally furthering the spread of false or misleading clams. It entails presenting the truth about a subject before covering misinformation, then ending a story by again presenting truth. Margaret Sullivan summarized it as "reality, spin, reality — all in one tasty, democracy-nourishing meal".
Steven Cheung is an American political advisor who is Donald Trump's campaign spokesman in the 2023–24 Republican primary and served in the Donald J. Trump administration. He previously worked in Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He also worked in communications for the sports organization Ultimate Fighting Championship based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Its leaders shamelessly propagated former President Donald Trump's "Big Lie"
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)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.
... 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