Discursive and Critical Analysis of Donald Trump’s Speech at the Republican Convention in Milwaukee (July 18, 2024)

Abstract

The aim of the article is a discursive and critical analysis of Donald Trump’s speech, which the Republican presidential candidate delivered at the party convention on July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee. Discourse was treated as the use of language in a specific social context, as well as a social practice in which the perlocutionary function of language is realized. In addition, the assumption of the power-creation of discourse was adopted, i.e., a concept that language is a source of hidden power relations and leads to the imposition of meanings. The most important conclusions from the analysis were as follows. The politician used value judgments in his speech in order to obtain legitimization from the audience for his own political program, for his declared political achievements so far, as well as legitimization for his own critical, negative assessment of the political and social situation during the administration of Joe Biden. Trump’s rhetoric is an exclusionary rhetoric, as evidenced by the dichotomy created: us–them. The politician’s targets are minority groups (illegal immigrants) and elites, to whom “ordinary citizens” are placed in opposition. The Republican refers to the strategy of denotation, using pejorative evaluations towards his opponents. In turn, the strategy of perspective indicates an exclusively positive assessment of his own program and political achievements and an exclusive criticism of the Democrats. Trump also used an amplifying strategy through the use of illocutionary verbs. The article increases the cognitive value in the area of research on Donald Trump’s discourse during the election campaign in the United States in 2024.