Donald Trump Twitter Rhetorical Analysis

Morgan Mitchell

Professor Way

Advanced First-Year Composition

1 September 2015

Rhetorical Analysis of Donald Trump’s Twitter Page

Social media has changed the game of politics. In today’s world, with the public looking to smartphones and tablets as their primary source of news, politicians have been forced to adapt the tone and content of their message to fit this new, more connected audience. Perhaps no politician understands this more than notorious billionaire, real estate tycoon, and now presidential candidate, Donald Trump. Through utilization of social media, more specifically Twitter, combined with his disregard for sounding too extreme or politically incorrect, Trump has gained a massive web audience - over four million followers and

counting on Twitter alone, each radically charged post reaching more and more people. Trump sets out to establish himself as a pragmatic yet audacious leader, with many of his Tweets directly addressing controversial issues that most politicians would usually avoid. He adopts an assertive tone in order to maintain the tough-minded, no-nonsense image he has created for himself, and this appeals to conservative Americans who want to see more decisive action taken in the White House. Throughout this paper, I will be analyzing different aspects of Trump’s Twitter profile using the rhetorical appeals of Ethos, Logos, Pathos and Kairos.
Let us begin our analysis by examining the Logos appeals of this profile. Logos, which focuses on the rhetorical concept of logic, seems to have a certain degree of absence in many of Trump’s tweets. Take for example his posts on the topic of global warming, “Ice storm rolls from Texas to Tennessee - I'm in Los Angeles and it's freezing. Global warming is a total, and very expensive, hoax!” For whatever reason, Trump believes cold weather in the the United States (during winter, mind you) disproves the confirmed fact that global temperatures have been steadily increasing since the Industrial Revolution. In one tweet, he goes so far as to accuse China of creating the notion of global warming for their own economic benefit, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” This notion of climate science denialism is a major logical fallacy, but his disturbing lack of logical appeal is not limited to climate change alone. His racially profuse comments against Mexico and the Mexican people have recently landed him in a lot of hot water, specifically when he said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” Not only is this statement completely out of line, it’s simply untrue. According to a 2013 study performed by the Pew Research Center, immigrants aged 12 to 24 were actually far less likely to commit a crime than people born in the United States. Another study found that incarceration rates among male Mexican immigrants were over five times lower than that of their U.S. born counterparts. Where is Donald Trump getting his information from?
Not only do these delusional misconceptions hurt Trump’s logical appeal, they severely jeopardize his credibility, which pertains to the rhetorical concept of Ethos.

When it comes to establishing his credibility, Trump takes a very interesting approach - nearly his entire Twitter feed is filled with heinous exaggerations and blatant lies. Over the last several months, the self proclaimed ‘politician’ has made a number of false and misleading statements on the economy, healthcare, trade and terrorism, here are just a few examples: In June, Trump made a claim that economic growth had never been below zero until last quarter’s drop, when in reality, it has been below zero 42 times over the last 68 years. In another post, he declared the “real” unemployment rate to be as high as “18 to 20 percent, maybe even 21 percent.” There is absolutely no factual basis for this opinion. Trump claimed the five Taliban leaders exchanged for Sgt. Bergdahl in May of 2014 “are now back on the battlefield trying to kill us.” All five remain behind bars in Doha, Qatar where they continue to be strictly monitored, according to the State Department. Sense a pattern yet? Donald Trump will say anything and everything if he thinks it will benefit him, even if the statements he makes are utter falsehoods, which significantly compromises his credibility as a legitimate

politician.
Another trait exemplified by good politicians is the ability to appeal to the emotions and feelings of their target audience, exemplified by the rhetorical concept of Pathos. Emotion plays an important role in the world of politics, especially on Twitter and Facebook where sentimental posts are shared and retweeted at an extremely high rate. It can ignite civic engagement, even among those who do not necessarily care to get involved with politics. It can seize the attention of the public, focusing it on injustices and corruption of power. Emotional connections allow the audience to engage with the political process on a more intimate level, bringing pressing issues closer to home. However, there is a downside to the political use of emotion on social media. While Trump does indeed pick numerous quarrels revolving around emotion, it is debateable as to whether or not he is very effective in doing so. Now, one would expect a presidential candidate to be at odds with his or her opponents, after all at the end of the day you are trying to prove to Americans why you are superior to your competitors. Donald Trump however, takes this to an entirely new level. Instead of making sound arguments about his rival candidates policies, or simply making a case for his own side, Trump would rather resort to name calling. It matters not whether the subject is a fellow Republican candidate, celebrity, or the President of the United States, no one is safe from his cheap, dull-witted insults. A perfect example of this, (one of many) came after his infamous interview with Anderson Cooper of CNN, he tweeted, “What a waste of time being interviewed by @andersoncooper when he puts on really stupid talking heads like Tim O'Brien-dumb guy with no clue!” Or the tweet he made about Chris Cillizza, a reporter for the Washington Post, “One of the dumber and least respected of the political pundits is Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post @TheFix. Moron hates my poll numbers.” Trump is a businessman, a brand, and an entertainer, but he is in no sense of the word a politician. This real-estate tycoon has zero public-sector leadership credibility, and yet here he is, belligerently insulting people who are far more qualified to do the job he so desperately wants.
Finally, for this rhetorical analysis to be complete, we must examine the timeliness of Donald Trump’s profile, which relates to the rhetorical appeal of Kairos. This is perhaps the single rhetorical device Trump uses effectively on his Twitter page, as many of his posts are actually relevant to current events. Recent examples of this include his comments about the GOP debate, “Just announced that in the history of @CNN, last night’s debate was its highest rated ever. Will they send me flowers & a thank you note?” Updates about his polls, “Every poll done on debate last night, from Drudge to Newsmax to Time Magazine, had me winning in a landslide. #MakeAmericaGreatAgain!” As well as notifications about upcoming interviews and rallies so that his radical fan club can stay informed. In keeping up with current events, Trump is able to communicate with his conservative target audience more effectively, in that his followers are staying up to date with his presidential campaign. His successful use of Kairos on Twitter and other social media has allowed him to stay prevalent in the mainstream media, which in turn, enables him to reach more and more people with his ‘fantastic’ stratagem of racism and ignorance.
This country's comprehension of politics is being reduced down to the size of our smartphone screens.

The presidential campaign has simply become another post in the collective twitter feed of America, intertwined with the constant flow of hash-tagged selfies and irrelevant retweets. As I previously mentioned, social media has changed the way in which politicians communicate with voters, but it’s doing more than that alone. It has changed what our nation wants and expects from its prospective leaders. It seems as though now a candidate’s personality is valued over their policy, but it is a particular type of personality that seems to attract the attention of the average Twitter

user.