O Beautiful Border Wall, Who’s the Biggest Demagogue of All? President Trump’s Populist Tweet-Storm Blows Away His U.S. and Global Counterparts
Abstract
In his two and a half years in office (January 21, 2017 to July 21, 2019) President Trump sent 9,122 tweets. During this time he used terms that have been associated with demagogic rhetoric that both divides his audience and sets up an “us” versus “them” antagonism for his own political advantage. This study compared Trump’s Twitter rhetoric in terms of demagogic content and frequency across seven key terms to a then field of twenty-five Democratic presidential candidates for 2020, as well as to several members of Trump’s cabinet and administration. The study further compared seventeen nationally influential political figures and eleven global leaders who were active on Twitter during the same time period. Finally, the study looked at key hashtags, pet phrases, and “I” statements made by the president which may evidence his demagogic traits. The history and characterization of demagogic rhetoric is explored, and complexity-extremity theory is used to explain the effect of “us” versus “them” appeals in political communication. Ultimately, President Trump was found to use demagogic verbiage more widely and on a far more frequent basis than a vast field of his American peers and international contemporaries.
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psycho: Donald Trump’s tweets surrounding mental health issues and attacks on media personalities. In M. Lockhart (Ed.), President Donald Trump and his political discourse: Ramifications of rhetoric via Twitter (pp. 114-130). New York: Routledge.
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the death penalty and prisoners’ rehabilitation. Media Psychology, 3(1), 1–24.
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(Eds.), Mass media and political thought: An information-processing approach (pp. 267-289). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Tetlock, P. E, Peterson, R. S., & Berry, J. M. (1993). Flattering and unflattering personality
portraits of integratively simple and complex managers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(3), 500-511.
Wang, Z. (2009). Hypothetical Scenarios Versus Actual Interactions: Validating the Black Sheep
Effect in Online Group Communication. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 1–30. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=45286767&site=ehost-live&scope=site
https://doi-org.glbvvproxy.enmu.edu/10.1080/01463375409389455
Burke, K. (1974). The philosophy of literary form. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press.
Carter, C. (2019). The paradox of dissent: Bullshit and the Twitter presidency. In M. Lockhart
(Ed.), President Donald Trump and his political discourse: Ramifications of rhetoric via Twitter (pp. 93-113). New York: Routledge.
Colley, D. F. (2019). Of twit-storms and demagogues: Trump, illusory truths of patriotism, and
the language of the Twittersphere. In M. Lockhart (Ed.), President Donald Trump and his political discourse: Ramifications of rhetoric via Twitter (pp. 33-51). New York: Routledge.
Cummings, L. (2019). The dark alchemy of Donald Trump: Re-inventing presidential rhetorics
through Christian and “New Age” discourses. In M. Lockhart (Ed.), President Donald Trump and his political discourse: Ramifications of rhetoric via Twitter (pp. 52-70). New York: Routledge.
Darsey, J. (2006). Patricia Roberts-Miller, demagoguery, and the troublesome case of Eugene
Debs. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 9(3), 463–470.
https://doi org.glbvvproxy.enmu.edu/10.1353/rap.2006.0067
Goldzwig, S. R. (2006). Demagoguery, democratic dissent, and “re-visioning”
democracy. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 9(3), 471–478. https://doi.org/10.1353/rap.2006.0071
Harmon-Kizer, T. R. (2016). Identity distancing and targeted advertisements: The black sheep
effect. Journal of Promotion Management, 22(3), 321–348. https://doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2016.1154916
Haverda, T., & Halley, J. A. (2019). Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Adorno’s
psychological technique: Content analyses of authoritarian populism. TripleC (Cognition, Communication, Co-Operation): Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society, 17(2), 202–220. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.glbvvproxy.enmu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=138601160&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Healy, P. & Haberman, M. (2015, December 5). 95,000 words, many of them ominous, from
Donald Trump’s tongue. New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/us/politics/95000-words-many-of-themominous-
from-donald-trumps-tongue.html
Hildebrand, D., DeMotta, Y., Sen, S., & Kongsompong, K. (2013). In-Group and Out-Group
Influences on the consumption behavior of minority groups: The case of gay men. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 32, 70–78. https://doi.org/10.1509/jppm.12.046
Johnson, P. E. (2017). The art of masculine victimhood: Donald Trump’s
demagoguery. Women’s Studies in Communication, 40(3), 229–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2017.1346533
Linville, P. W. (1982). The complexity-extremity effect and age-based stereotyping. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 42(2), 193-211.
Lomas, C. W. (1961). The rhetoric of demagoguery. Western Speech, 25(3), 160–168.
Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=15751006&site=ehost-live&scope=site
McDonough, M. L. (2018). The evolution of demagoguery: An updated understanding of
demagogic rhetoric as interactive and ongoing. Communication Quarterly, 66(2), 138–156. https://doi-org.glbvvproxy.enmu.edu/10.1080/01463373.2018.1438486
Mendes, A. E. (2016). Digital demagogue: The critical candidacy of Donald J. Trump. Journal
of Contemporary Rhetoric, 6(3/4), 62–73. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.glbvvproxy.enmu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=135097356&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Ott, B. L., & Dickinson, G. (2019). The Twitter presidency: Donald J. Trump and the politics of
white rage. New York: Routledge.
Roberts-Miller, P. (2005). Democracy, demagoguery, and critical rhetoric. Rhetoric & Public
Affairs, 8(3), 459–476. https://doi.org/10.1353/rap.2005.0069
Schroder, H. M., Driver, M. J., & Streufert, S. (1967). Human information processing:
Individuals and groups functioning in complex social situations. New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston.
Shafer, J. (2015, August 10). Donald Trump, American demagogue: And the press corps that just
doesn’t get him. Politico Magazine, Retrieved on November 1, 2019 from
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/dont-write-trumps-obit-yet-121232
Smith-Frigerio, S., & Houston, J. B. (2019). Crazy, insane, nut job, wacko, basket case, and
psycho: Donald Trump’s tweets surrounding mental health issues and attacks on media personalities. In M. Lockhart (Ed.), President Donald Trump and his political discourse: Ramifications of rhetoric via Twitter (pp. 114-130). New York: Routledge.
Sotirovic, M. (2001). Effects of media use on complexity and extremity of attitudes toward
the death penalty and prisoners’ rehabilitation. Media Psychology, 3(1), 1–24.
https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532785XMEP0301_01
Tetlock, P. E. (1985). Integrative complexity of policy reasoning. In S. Kraus & R. M. Perloff
(Eds.), Mass media and political thought: An information-processing approach (pp. 267-289). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Tetlock, P. E, Peterson, R. S., & Berry, J. M. (1993). Flattering and unflattering personality
portraits of integratively simple and complex managers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(3), 500-511.
Wang, Z. (2009). Hypothetical Scenarios Versus Actual Interactions: Validating the Black Sheep
Effect in Online Group Communication. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 1–30. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=45286767&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Published
2020-01-10
How to Cite
ROE, D. L. (2020). O Beautiful Border Wall, Who’s the Biggest Demagogue of All? President Trump’s Populist Tweet-Storm Blows Away His U.S. and Global Counterparts. IJRDO Journal of International Affairs and Global Strategy, 1(1), 32-54. Retrieved from http://webdisk.ijrdo.org/index.php/iags/article/view/3404
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