Presupposition as a Manipulation Strategy in President Biden's Reference to the War on Gaza

Abstract

Political communication is a complex process of sharing concepts and beliefs to gain control over power and manipulate the mass population. In the face of heightening conflict and humanitarian issues, the US President Joe Biden’s communication occurred when the Gaza War was underway in the October of 2023. This study examines three hypotheses: Biden’s utilization of presuppositions for influencing perception and gaining approval on Israel’s behalf, for causing self-derogatory effect, and blaming Hamas alongside constructing an element of predestination regarding the United States foreign policy. In the present study, the researcher relied on a content analysis model and identified various presupposition types in Biden’s speeches in order to categorize them based on different manipulative strategies. The article concluded that Biden’s language often justified Israeli actions while attributing all harm to Hamas, thus aligning the audience with the U.S. and building a narrative of pure justice. Presuppositions were most detectable in Biden’s discourse about the IDF strike on al-Shifa Hospital, where he assumed that Hamas must have been operating out of the hospital. These findings therefore present presupposition as a major political resource in the construction of discourses, people, and policy reforms.