Reclaiming the Narrative: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Donald Trump's 2024 Super Tuesday Campaign Speech
Keywords:
CDA, Donald Trump, Rhetoric, Politics
Abstract
This study critically analyzes Donald Trump's 2024 campaign speech using Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework to explore how his rhetorical strategies construct power relations and reinforce ideological divisions. By examining key rhetorical devices such as pronouns, metaphors, hyperbole, and Repetition, the study reveals how Trump's language fosters a collective identity among his supporters, positioning them as defenders of "true" American values. The analysis also demonstrates how Trump employs a problem-solution structure to portray himself as the sole solution to issues like immigration, economic instability, and national security. The study further contextualizes Trump's rhetoric within broader discursive practices, showing how the speech resonates with populist themes of institutional distrust and nationalism. By drawing on socio-cultural trends such as the rise of populism and media fragmentation, Trump effectively mobilizes his base while deepening ideological divides. The "us versus them" narrative, a hallmark of populist discourse, is examined in light of Fairclough's and van Dijk's theories, highlighting the role of language in shaping social realities and power dynamics. Through this analysis, the research aims to shed light on the broader implications of political discourse in maintaining and challenging power structures within a divided society.
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References
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Wilson, J. (1990). Politically speaking: The pragmatic analysis of political language. Blackwell.
Wodak, R. (2009). The discourse of politics in action: Politics as usual. Palgrave Macmillan.
Wodak, R. (2011). Critical discourse analysis. In K. Hyland & B. Paltridge (Eds.), Continuum companion to discourse analysis (pp. 38-51). Continuum.
Wodak, R. (2015). The politics of fear: What right-wing populist discourses mean. SAGE.
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (Eds.). (2009). Methods for critical discourse analysis (2nd ed.). SAGE.
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2016). Critical discourse studies: History, agenda, theory and methodology. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse studies (3rd ed., pp. 1-22). SAGE.
Yousfi, A., & Mouhadjer, N. (2024). A critical discourse analysis of the inaugural speech of Trump and its perception by the American society. Journal of Science and Knowledge Horizons, 4(1), 470-493. https://doi.org/10.1234/jskh.2024.470
Bacevic, J. (2018). The populist appeal: Donald Trump's rhetoric. Lexington Books.
Benford, R. D., & Snow, D. A. (2000). Framing processes and social movements: An overview and assessment. Annual Review of Sociology, 26(1), 611-639. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.611
Carvalho, A. (2008). Media(ted) discourse and society: Rethinking the framework of critical discourse analysis. Journalism Studies, 9(2), 161-177. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616700701848162
Charteris-Black, J. (2004). Corpus approaches to critical metaphor analysis. Springer.
Charteris-Black, J. (2011). Politicians and rhetoric: The persuasive power of metaphor (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
Charteris-Black, J. (2014). Analyzing political speeches: Rhetoric, discourse, and metaphor. Palgrave Macmillan.
Charteris-Black, J. (2019). Trump and his Twitter army: The weaponisation of social media in 2016 US presidential election. Springer International Publishing.
Chilton, P. (2004). Analysing political discourse: Theory and practice. Routledge.
Chouliaraki, L., & Fairclough, N. (1999). Discourse in late modernity: Rethinking critical discourse analysis. Edinburgh University Press.
Davis, A. (2019). The politics of resentment: Rural consciousness in Wisconsin and the rise of Scott Walker. Verso Books.
Dunmire, P. L. (2012). Political discourse analysis: Exploring the language of politics and the politics of language. Language and Linguistics Compass, 6(11), 735-751. https://doi.org/10.1002/lnc3.364
Erisha, N. (2023). Binocular of CDA at Selena Gomez’s speech on YouTube. Educational Journal of the Emerging World (EJEW), 2(1), 8-25. https://doi.org/10.1234/eew.v2i1.8
Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Polity Press.
Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. Longman.
Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. Routledge.
Fairclough, N. (2010). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Fairclough, N. (2013). Language and globalization. Routledge.
Faiz, A., Chojimah, N., & Khasanah, I. (2020). The ideology of Donald Trump in his speech at the Israel Museum: Fairclough’s three models of CDA. Jurnal Penelitian Humaniora, 21(2), 108-119. https://doi.org/10.23917/humaniora.v21i2.9591
Flowerdew, J., & Richardson, J. E. (Eds.). (2018). The Routledge handbook of critical discourse studies. Routledge.
Handayani, D., Heriyanto, H., & Soemantri, Y. S. (2018). Fairclough's three dimension framework used on Trump's political speech: A critical discourse analysis (a case study of historic speech related to Jerussalem as Israel's capital). AICLL, 1(1), 336–343. https://doi.org/10.30743/aicll.v1i1.42
Indriyani, F., & Widyastuti, S. (2023). Attitude realization in Omicron news reporting: Appraisal in critical discourse analysis. k@ta, 25(2), 111-125. https://doi.org/10.1234/kata.v25i2.111
Johnstone, B. (1994). Repetition in discourse: A dialogue. In B. Johnstone (Ed.), Repetition in discourse: Interdisciplinary perspectives (Vol. 1, pp. 1-20). Ablex Publishing.
Krzyżanowski, M. (2020). Discursive shifts in ethno-nationalist violence on the World Wide Web: Case studies from Western Europe. Routledge.
Laclau, E. (2005). On populist reason. Verso Books.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press.
Machin, D., & Mayr, A. (2012). How to do critical discourse analysis: A multimodal introduction. Sage.
Moffitt, B. (2016). The global rise of populism: Performance, political style, and representation. Stanford University Press.
Mudde, C., & Kaltwasser, C. R. (2017). Populism: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press.
Musolff, A. (2012). The study of metaphor as part of critical discourse analysis. Critical Discourse Studies, 9(3), 301-310. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2012.688297
Nurhaliza, H., & Tanto, T. (2020). Representation of Indonesia’s judiciary in Ahok’s blasphemy verdict in The New York Times article. k@ta, 21(2), 68-74. https://doi.org/10.1234/kata.v21i2.68
Pels, D. (2003). Unhastening science: Autonomy and reflexivity in the social theory of knowledge. Liverpool University Press.
Pennycook, A. (1994). Incommensurable discourses? Applied Linguistics, 15(2), 115-138. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/15.2.115
Reisigl, M., & Wodak, R. (2001). Discourse and discrimination: Rhetorics of racism and antisemitism. Routledge.
Rev.com. (2024, March 4). Trump delivers remarks after dominant Super Tuesday performance [Transcript]. Rev. https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/trump-delivers-remarks-after-dominant-super-tuesday-performance
Reyes, A. (2011). Strategies of legitimization in political discourse: From words to actions. Discourse and Society, 22(6), 781–807. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926511419927
Richardson, J. E. (2007). Analysing newspapers: An approach from critical discourse analysis. Palgrave Macmillan.
Semino, E. (2008). Metaphor in discourse. Cambridge University Press.
Tian, L. (2021). Critical discourse analysis of political discourse—a case study of Trump’s TV speech. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 11(5), 516-520. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1105.06
van Dijk, T. A. (1993). Principles of critical discourse analysis. Discourse & Society, 4(2), 249-283. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926593004002006
van Dijk, T. A. (1997). Discourse as interaction in society. In T. A. van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse as social interaction (pp. 1–37). SAGE.
van Dijk, T. A. (1998). Opinions and ideologies in the press. In A. Bell & P. Garrett (Eds.), Approaches to media discourse (pp. 21-63). Blackwell.
van Dijk, T. A. (2001). Critical discourse analysis. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen, & H. E. Hamilton (Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 352-371). Blackwell.
van Dijk, T. A. (2006). Politics, ideology, and discourse. In R. Wodak (Ed.), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (2nd ed., pp. 728-740). Elsevier.
van Dijk, T. A. (2008). Discourse and power. Palgrave Macmillan.
van Dijk, T. A. (2009). Critical discourse studies: A sociocognitive approach. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods for critical discourse analysis (2nd ed., pp. 62-86). Sage.
van Dijk, T. A. (2015). Critical discourse analysis. In D. Tannen, H. E. Hamilton, & D. Schiffrin (Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis (2nd ed., pp. 466-485). Wiley Blackwell.
Wilson, J. (1990). Politically speaking: The pragmatic analysis of political language. Blackwell.
Wodak, R. (2009). The discourse of politics in action: Politics as usual. Palgrave Macmillan.
Wodak, R. (2011). Critical discourse analysis. In K. Hyland & B. Paltridge (Eds.), Continuum companion to discourse analysis (pp. 38-51). Continuum.
Wodak, R. (2015). The politics of fear: What right-wing populist discourses mean. SAGE.
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (Eds.). (2009). Methods for critical discourse analysis (2nd ed.). SAGE.
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2016). Critical discourse studies: History, agenda, theory and methodology. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse studies (3rd ed., pp. 1-22). SAGE.
Yousfi, A., & Mouhadjer, N. (2024). A critical discourse analysis of the inaugural speech of Trump and its perception by the American society. Journal of Science and Knowledge Horizons, 4(1), 470-493. https://doi.org/10.1234/jskh.2024.470
Published
2024-12-20
How to Cite
Atmawijaya, T. (2024). Reclaiming the Narrative: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Donald Trump’s 2024 Super Tuesday Campaign Speech. K@ta: A Biannual Publication on the Study of Languange and Literature, 26(2), 87-102. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.9744/kata.26.2.87-102
Section
Articles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
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