Abstract
The present study has two aims: First, to investigate the way knowledge has been expressed in relation to the negative representation of the two categories, namely, immigrants (especially illegal ones) and Syrian refugees, in two of Donald Trump’s pre- and post-presidential speeches. Second, to examine the local ideologies that can be identified in relation to the negative representation of the two categories in the selected data. Consequently, four extracts have been selected to be critically examined by means of adopting eight selected strategies out of Van Dijk’s fourteen Strategies of Critical Epistemic Discourse Analysis (2011b) in combination with Van Dijk’s Ideological Square (2011a). The results have shown a lack of credibility in many of the statements Trump has made in order to support his negative representation of the two categories. Besides, the two extracts taken from the selected post-presidential speech boldly reflect his discriminatory tendency towards the two categories. Thus, these two points lead to the conclusion that Trump’s negative representation of the two categories is actually out of the discriminatory ideology he adopts against them rather than a mere persuasive strategy to win the (2016) presidential elections of the United States of America (henceforth the U.S.).
Highlights
Trump’s political discourse has attracted the attention of rhetoric scholars as they have found that his political discourse is characterized with an abnormal aggressive tendency towards certain minorities (Mendes, 2016)
The present study has two aims: First, to investigate the way knowledge has been expressed in relation to the negative representation of the two categories, namely, immigrants and Syrian refugees, in two of Donald Trump’s pre- and post-presidential speeches
Four extracts have been selected to be critically examined by means of adopting eight selected strategies out of Van Dijk’s fourteen Strategies of Critical Epistemic Discourse Analysis (2011b) in combination with Van Dijk’s Ideological Square (2011a)
Summary
Trump’s political discourse has attracted the attention of rhetoric scholars as they have found that his political discourse (especially his political speeches) is characterized with an abnormal aggressive tendency towards certain minorities (Mendes, 2016). According to RobertsMiller (as cited in Mendes, 2016), as the president of The U.S, Trump’s aggressive tone besides other properties such as his flamboyant personality, irresponsible statements, demagogue and misogyny are all critical phenomena that should be highlighted since they can dangerously shape the American policy and affect the social opinion and behavior. In this respect, Cherkaoui (2016) has identified eight main points that shape Trump’s pre-presidential political discourse. The researchers intend to select two pre- and post-presidential speeches delivered by Trump from the year 2016 till the year 2017, as the fundamental sources of data in the present study in order to examine how Trump’s negative representation of the two categories, has been developed
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