Abstract
This study investigates the use of conceptual metaphors by Donald Trump in three important political speeches on his way to the US presidency: the acceptance speech of his candidacy, the victory speech on election night, and his inaugural address as president of the US. The consistent analysis of all the metaphors in the speeches shows that Trump relies almost exclusively on conventional conceptual metaphors that are expressed by conventionalised metaphorical expressions. Nevertheless, a range of metaphors appears as constitutive to his framing of political topics, such as immigration and the economy. In addition, Trump metaphorically constructs his political persona as that of a repairman, builder, healer, and warrior, among others.
Highlights
Trump creates the aura of a super-male talking in abrupt sentences, ‘barking’, recycling the same words over and over again; he bullies and wants everything that is ‘number one’. (Lakoff R. 2017, 598)The year 2016 has witnessed the success of a highly controversial and unusual political persona – Donald Trump – who became the 45th President of the US
Our analysis focuses on three key speeches delivered by Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential race: at the beginning of his election campaign, upon his victory, and when he was inaugurated as president
Since the political speeches are carefully planned, the metaphors should be discussed in light of the potential aims they pursue such as influencing the audience’s attitudes and beliefs, establishing rapport with the public, criticising an opponent, creating an image of a certain type of political persona, and so on
Summary
Trump creates the aura of a super-male talking in abrupt sentences, ‘barking’, recycling the same words over and over again; he bullies and wants everything that is ‘number one’. (Lakoff R. 2017, 598)The year 2016 has witnessed the success of a highly controversial and unusual political persona – Donald Trump – who became the 45th President of the US. Conceptual metaphors in political discourse help to both direct and constrain the audience’s understanding by drawing on certain metaphorical themes. When deciding whether to vote for Donald Trump, a person may use analogy and resort to one’s own experience and background knowledge about the Republican Party that this candidate represents, evaluating the policy of this party and assessing previous Republican presidents. This background knowledge is enhanced by how a particular candidate presents him- or herself and what her/his political persona looks like. In the case of Trump, metaphors can help to influence voter preferences as in trump is a warrior (“I will fight for you, and I will win for you; I will fight for you with every breath in my body”1), which conceptualises him as a strong, decisive leader and as a warrior who will stand for his people
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