CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF TRUMP ACROSS TIME

Abstract

This study explores the discourse of Trump as a businessman and as a president regarding the topics of economy. Data for this research were gathered from four speeches and four interviews delivered by Trump in the eighties-nineties and four speeches and four interviews after being elected president. The analysis focuses on the way Trump represents US (ingroup) versus THEM (outgroup) at the local semantic level through the use of pronouns and implicatures and, at the local form through the use of syntax, that is, the formal relationship between clauses and sentences. Specifically, this study follows van Dijk’s (2001) ideological structures from the local level. In particular, I want to shed light on the following research questions: (1) How does Donald Trump represent the topic of immigration as a businessman? (2) How does Donald Trump represent the topic of immigration as a president? On the basis of the results of this research, it can be concluded that the period in which the discourse was uttered seems to have a strong bearing on the discursive strategies employed by Trump. It should be also pointed out that nowadays, the linguistic analysis of Trump’s discourses are a touchstone issue in political and social affairs.