Populist movements are formed around a charismatic leader (Wodak 2015: 67). Trump's discourse suggests that he is well aware of the fact, since the most prominent populist theme in the speeches that were analysed was indeed The Charismatic Leader. Trump emphasizes his personal attributes the most, playing the role of the charismatic saviour. He also builds his image as an effective leader by touting what his administration has done for the people and promises to implement policies that his voters support and by making promises of a better future – to make America great again.
The results of the quantitative content analysis suggest that while Trump consistently advertises his personal characteristics and connection to the people the most, he appears to increase the utilization of this sub-theme when events in the political environment do not reflect positively on him. For instance, in Speech 1 the number of occurrences in the sub-theme of Personal Attributes and Connection to the People was more than double that of the other sub-themes, suggesting that since he did not yet have any demonstratable achievements, he resorted in convincing to his audience of his intent to deliver his promises and his commitment to the people. Similarly, in Speech 5, there was a marked spike in the sub-theme of Personal Attributes
and Connection to the People, which appears to be a reaction to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Trump’s campaign’s role in the Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election and to the resulting negative media coverage. The data suggests that in that rally Trump attempted to counter the media narrative about his wrongdoings by highlighting his positive personal characteristics.
In performing the role of the charismatic leader, Trump utilizes the similar tripolar approach to representing the world as Rooyackers and Verkuyten (2012: 130) found Geert Wilders to use.
Firstly, Trump explicitly declares himself as the messenger by stating I am the messenger already in Speech 1, positioning himself with the people, but at the same time as above the people, the one delivering their message and fighting for them. Furthermore, Trump appears to differentiate himself from his base by explicitly describing how weird it was that people from Alabama love him, even though he is a guy who lives on 5th Avenue in the most beautiful apartment you've ever seen comes to Alabama and Alabama loves that guy, as demonstrated in example (1).
Trump uses many discursive strategies to align himself with the people. For instance, he frequently resorts to collectivization by using the first-person plural for this purpose, and on the other hand, the third-person plural to differentiate them from us. Furthermore, Trump chooses to use verbs such as the above mentioned to love, to signal his emotional involvement and, thus, align himself with the people. In addition, Trump uses positive adjectives to describe his supporters to signal further involvement.
Secondly, Trump creates many foes as the third pole of the equation; his political opponents and political elites, for example, Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, illegal immigrants, dissenting voices in the community and the media. Elliot (2017: 8-9) found that in the 2016 presidential campaign Trump used significantly more fear inducing rhetoric, personal insults and political myths than the then-candidate of the GOP John McCain did in the previous presidential election. The results of this study affirm that Trump continues to use fear-inducing discourse. For instance, in his attempt to present himself as the Charismatic Saviour, Trump presents himself as the protector of the people by highlighting how the out-group is a danger to the people. For instance, when Trump positions himself as the saviour from the political elites, he uses fear inducing language, as was demonstrated in example (3). In describing the state of governing, Trump uses the adjective dangerous and asserted that the country was weakened and endangered, and our people were left defenceless, while vowing not to stop fighting for the safety of the people. Similarly, in example (7), Trump uses very graphic language to describe
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attacks from undocumented immigrants, using the adjectives viciously and violently, and vowing to protect American lives.
A very prominent way for Trump to highlight his personal abilities as the leader is discourse representation. In several instances, e.g. examples (8)-(11), Trump recounts stories of important people, such as CEOs, the Prime Minister of Japan, lawyers and politicians either offering praise for him or being amazed by his decision and deal-making abilities. In all these instances Trump uses constructed dialogue, which according to Georgakopoulou and Goutsos (2004:135) is a form of storytelling that engages the audience effectively and signals the audience that the speaker is also involved. Therefore, it can be presumed that for Trump it is especially important to present himself as a powerful, respected leader that is capable of impressing people even at the highest echelons of government, corporations and even leaders of powerful nations.
The second most prominent sub-theme of the populist theme The Charismatic Leader found to be Materialized Success. In this category Trump continues to use similar strategies as with the sub-category of Personal Attributes. He aligns himself with the people using deictics and positive predication and involvement strategies. He also and points out the failings of his opponents while claiming he has done far more or more than anybody as demonstrated in example (14). However, Trump does not usually provide any evidence for his claims, but instead tends to use vague phrases, like the ones from example (14) or buzzwords, such as win in example (15), to describe his achievements. He also uses hyperbolic expressions and superlatives as involvement strategies to emphasize the magnitude of his achievements.
Interestingly, Trump frequently talks about his election victory and attempts to construct a legend-like narrative around the event. In examples (25), (26) and (27) Trump engages the audience in the cognitive acts of remembering or never forgetting the night he was elected.
Furthermore, by using repetition and positive and hyperbolic attributive adjectives, Trump is implanting in the listeners’ minds how awe-inspiring and great an event his election was.
However, according to an analysis by The Washington Post’s Phillip Bump (Bump 2016) using the numbers gathered by the Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman (Wasserman 2016), Trump was elected only because 80 000 people voted for him in three key states even though he lost the popular vote by 3 million (CNN Politics 2016b). Therefore, Trump’s strategy of describing his achievements in glorified terms, repeating his claims, engaging the audience in cognitive exercises and distorting the facts to make himself seem like an absolute winner or messianic saviour in every event he encounters appears to be a very effective way of convincing the audience of his seemingly undeniable excellence.
In employing the third sub-theme of the Charismatic Saviour, Future Success, Trump plays heavily into the concept of the saviour who is there to fix everything and do so quickly. Firstly, he uses verb tenses in a way that suggest constant action either behind the scenes or out in the open. Secondly, Trump frequently uses short tag-line type of declarations that are easy to remember in his promises. For instance, in example (28) he declares, The miners are coming back! Thirdly, Trump’s lexical choices evoke imagery relating to his ability to resurrect the American dream. For instance, in example (28) Trump talks about turning the EPA from a job-killer to a job-creator, and in example (29) he promises that dying factories will come roaring back to life. Similarly, Trump declares in example (31) that his administration is liberating our citizen from this Obamacare nightmare, again using a verb that has connotations of saving the people from oppressors.
Another key theme found within the sub-theme Future Success is the perpetuation of the conservative myth of the golden age that has been lost. For instance, in example (32) Trump describes a future of prosperity in which patriotism and conservative values form the foundations of society and the world respects America and its citizens. These types of passages occur near the end of the speeches close to the closing sequence
(33) Together, we will make America strong again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America prosper again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again!
The qualitative analysis suggests that this wealthy and prosperous America does not necessarily apply to all Americans. The proud America, may reflect nativist sentiments, being proud of the white, Christian America. Furthermore, Trump’s demonization of immigrants and dissenting individuals, who often are people of colour, is intended to convey that the safety of Americans is threatened by minorities, which in turn could suggest policies that limit the rights of immigrants and perhaps other minorities as well.
In terms of Trump’s campaign slogan Make America Great Again, which appears in the oath-like closing sequence presented in example (33), it should be noted that the Republican icon Ronald Reagan used a similar slogan in his presidential campaign against Jimmy Carter in 1980,
“Let’s make America great again!” (Margolin 2016). Although Trump claims to have come up with the slogan himself (ibid.), it is possible that the slogan, because of the association with Reagan, is designed to appeal to those Republican voters who might otherwise be put off by this President’s behaviour. However, the slogan has a more sinister side – a function as a racist dog-whistle, especially if one considers the connotations the words safe and proud mentioned in this oath. Even though America has been great for white people for a long time, some of
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them now perceive immigration and minorities as a threat – a sentiment that Trump tapped into in his 2016 presidential campaign. Therefore, it can be argued that for some of Trump’s supporters, the time when America was great may mean the time when minorities had fewer rights and the white man was in control of society and economy.
In addition, after all the self-aggrandising by employing the different sub-themes of the populist theme of The Charismatic Leader, this oath-like final sequence functions also as a sub-move-set, wishing further success, which Khany and Hamzelou (2014: 919) found in dictators’
speeches. Arguably, Trump’s call to make America great again can encourage his supporters to take a stand for their common values and to fight for their common goal to make the country great the way the white-nationalist segments of his base understand it. Furthermore, Trump’s construction and propagation of the myth that he always wins and is always right can make his claims and promises more credible to those who are inclined to support him.