Abstract
This chapter merges three previous studies in an attempt to arrive at how to construct the social reality of politically and economically powerful partisan elites like Donald Trump. The chapter expands and updates the discussions in the three studies, first by presenting empirical evidence of the influence partisan discourse may have on its adherents once they ascend the power ladder, second by listing the discursive hallmarks of both partisan language and Trump’s discourse, and third by comparing and paralleling their linguistic traits. The study shows that the major discursive hallmarks of partisan language mirror Trump’s discourse, albeit his use of disparate discursive tactics and threads.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abadi, M. (2017). Democrats and republicans speak different languages—And it helps explain why we're so divided. Business Insider https://www.businessinsider.com/political-language-rhetoric-framing-messaging-lakoff-luntz-2017-8
Arendt, H. (1968). The origins of totalitarianism, revised (3rd ed.). Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Barkho, L. (2013). Towards a pragmatic view of impartiality. In L. Barkho (Ed.), From theory to practice: How to assess and apply impartiality in News and current affairs. University of Chicago Press.
Barkho, L. (2018). Haktology, trump, and news practices. In R. E. Gutsche Jr. (Ed.), The trump presidency, journalism, and democracy (pp. 77–98). Routledge.
Barkho, L. (2021). Without fear or favor? The social reality of partisan language. Stephen J. A. Ward, Handbook of global media ethics (pp. 459–478). Springer, .
Barkho, L. (2022). Trump’s News practices and discursive patterns in his new moment as “former president”. In R. E. Gutsche Jr. (Ed.), The future of the presidency, journalism, and democracy. Routledge.
BBC. (2017, May 32). ‘Covfefe’: Trump invents new word and melts internet. BBC. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40104063
Beauchamp, Zack (2017, May 22). The hilarious trump orb photo is a nearly perfect metaphor for his foreign policy. Vox. https://www.vox.com/world/2017/5/22/15674782/trump-orb-what
Benkler, Y., Faris, R., & Roberts, H. (2018). Network propaganda: Manipulation, disinformation, and radicalization in American politics. Oxford University Press.
Bernstein, R. (2005). The abuse of evil: The corruption of politics and religions since 9/11. Polity Press.
Blow, C. M. (2017a, July 17). Trump savagely mauls the language. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/opinion/donald-trump-english-language.html
Blow, C. M. (2017b). Trump’s degradation of the language. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/opinion/donald-trump-degradation-of-the-language.html
Bourdieu, P. (1998). Practical reason: On the theory of action. Stanford University Press.
Bukszpan, D. (2016). The political buzzwords some people hope will end with election day. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/04/the-political-buzzwords-some-people-hope-will-end-with-election-day.html
Buncombe, A. (2017, June 29). Donald Trump accuses ‘crazy’ MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski of ‘bleeding badly from a face-lift’. The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-morning-joe-hosts-twitter-mika-brzezinski-mar-a-lago-face-lift-joe-scarborough-a7814731.html
Camron, I. (2016). Donald Trump’s worst offense? Mocking disabled reporter, Poll Finds. ABC NEWS. http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-s-worst-offense-mocking-disabled-reporter-poll-finds-n627736
Carmon, I. (2016). Donald Trump’s worst offense? Mocking disabled reporter, Poll Finds. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-s-worst-offense-mocking-disabled-reporter-poll-finds-n627736
Cassidy, J. (2016). The meaning of trump early-morning tweet storm. The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/the-meaning-of-trumps-early-morning-tweet-storm
Colker, R. (2020). The power of insults. BUL Rev, 100(1), 1–70.
Conrad, P. (2017). How trump thinks: His tweets and the birth of a new political language. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/09/how-trump-thinks-tweets-birth-new-political-language-peter-oborne-tom-roberts-review
Corn, D. (2012). SECRET VIDEO: Romney tells millionaire donors what he REALLY thinks of Obama voters. Mother Jones. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/secret-video-romney-private-fundraiser/
Crilly, R. (2017). Donald Trump spends ‘up to eight hours a day watching TV’–Report. The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/10/donald-trump-spends-eight-hours-day-watching-tv-report/
Crossley, S. A., Louwerse, M. M., McCarthy, P. M., & McNamara, D. S. (2007). A linguistic analysis of simplified and authentic texts. The Modern Language Journal, 91(1), 15–30.
David, J. E. (2016). Donald Trump supporters spar with Clinton over ‘basket of deplorables’ remark. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/10/donald-trump-supporters-spar-with-clinton-over-basket-of-deplorables-remark.html
Davis, J. H. (2017). Trump’s harsh language on North Korea has little precedent, Experts say. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/us/politics/trumps-harsh-language-on-north-korea-has-little-precedent-experts-say.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0.
Dempsey, S. (2016). Are bots the next big thing in marketing and media–or just more hot air? The Irish Independent. http://www.independent.ie/business/media/are-bots-the-next-big-thing-in-marketing-and-media-or-just-more-hot-air-34633090.html
Fish, I. S. (2017). Emperor Trump’s sycophantic cabinet meeting stinks of Beijing-like obeisance. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/13/emperor-trumps-sycophantic-cabinet-meeting-stinks-beijing-obeisance
Foucault, M. (2005). The order of things. Routledge.
Fox News. (2017). Trump tweets ‘covfefe,’ causes Twitter frenzy. Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/31/trump-tweets-covfefe-causes-twitter-frenzy.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fpolitics+%28Internal+-+Politics+-+Text%29
Fram, A., & Lemire, J. (2018). Trump: Why allow immigrants from ‘shithole countries’? AP. https://apnews.com/article/immigration-north-america-donald-trump-ap-top-news-international-news-fdda2ff0b877416c8ae1c1a77a3cc425
Freedland, J. (2017). With trump it’s time to go beyond mere disgust. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/28/trump-disgust-president-repulsive-behaviour
Gentzkow, M., Shapiro, J. M., & Taddy, M. (2016). Measuring polarization in high-dimensional data: Method and application to congressional speech (No. w22423). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Georgantopoulos, M. A. (2017). Here’s a running list of president Trump’s lies and other bullshit. BuzzFeed. https://www.buzzfeed.com/maryanngeorgantopoulos/president-trump-lie-list?utm_term=.uyzkxLOzx#.jxo3AMyjA
Gift, T. (2022). Don’t bet against trump and fox News reuniting for 2024. The Hill. https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/3768911-dont-bet-against-trump-and-fox-news-reuniting-for-2024/
Haass, R. (2005). The opportunity: America’s moment to Alter History’s course. Public Affairs.
Harwood, J. (2014). Taking their umbrage where they can get it. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/20/us/politics/democrats-accuse-republicans-of-war-on-women.html?_r=0
Jakobson, R. (1960). Linguistics and poetics. In Style in language (pp. 350–377). MIT Press.
Jenks, C. (2022). Mock News: On the discourse of mocking in US televised political discussions. Discourse & Communication, 16(1), 58–75.
Jones, M. (2017). Hacking, bots and information wars in the Qatar spat. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/06/07/hacking-bots-and-information-wars-in-the-qatar-spat/?utm_term=.1334c6f03fc4
Kenney, T. (2022, updated). Political analyst loses TV job after mocking Trump’s appearance, Georgia station says. The Telegraph. https://www.macon.com/news/state/georgia/article264789314.html
Konnikova, M. (2017). rump’s Lies vs. Your Brain. Politico Magazine. http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/donald-trump-lies-liar-effect-brain-214658
Kurtzleben, D. (2017). We asked people what they know about taxes. See if you know the answers. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2017/04/17/523960808/we-asked-people-what-they-know-about-taxes-see-if-you-know-the-answers
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (2008). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago press.
Luntz, F. (2007). Words that work: It's not what you say, it’s what people hear. Hachette UK.
Margolin, E. (2017). ‘Make America great again’—who said it first? NBC NEWS. https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/learn-speak-act/2017/04/12/why-partisan-news-not-just-fake-news-promotes-political-misperceptions/
McCluskey, M. (2019). Profanity and the president: News use of Trump’s shithole comment. Newspaper Research Journal, 40(4), 415–430.
Miller, Z. (2011). REVEALED: How to talk like a republican. Business Insider. Business insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/revealed-how-to-talk-like-a-republican-2011-10
Mitchell, A., Gottfried, J., Kiley, J., & Matsa, K. E. (2014). Section 1: Media sources: Distinct favorites emerge on the left and right. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2014/10/21/section-1-media-sources-distinct-favorites-emerge-on-the-left-and-right/
North, A. (2017). Donald Trump’s twitter comedy. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/opinion/donald-trumps-twitter-comedy.html?action=cl
Ott, B. L. (2017). The age of twitter: Donald J. trump and the politics of debasement. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 34(1), 59–68.
Oxford Dictionaries. (2014). What are the most common American political insults? Oxford Dictionaries. http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2014/11/04/political-insults/
Pak, A., & Paroubek, P. (2010, May). Twitter as a corpus for sentiment analysis and opinion mining. In LREc (Vol. 10, no. 2010, pp. 1320-1326).
Pew Research Center. (2016). Ideological placement of each Source’s audience. Pew Research Center. http://www.pewresearch.org/pj_14-10-21_mediapolarization-08-2/
Powell, B. A. (2003). Framing the issues: UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff tells how conservatives use language to dominate politics. UC Berkley News. https://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml
Power, S. (2004, April 29). Hannah Arendt’s Lesson. New York Review of Books. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2004/04/29/the-lesson-of-hannah-arendt/
Quealy, K. (2021). The complete list of Trump's twitter insults (2015-2021). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/19/upshot/trump-complete-insult-list.html.
Rajan, A. (2017). Fox News, Hannity and the meaning of ‘collusion’. BBC. http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40856436.
Reilly, K. (2017). Swedish deputy prime minister appears to mock president trump with all-female photo. Fortune http://fortune.com/2017/02/04/swedish-deputy-prime-minister-all-women-trump/
Roberts, D. (2020). With impeachment, America’s epistemic crisis has arrived. Vox. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/11/16/20964281/impeachment-hearings-trump-america-epistemic-crisis.
Schlesinger, A. M. (2004). War and the American presidency. W. W. Norton.
Schultz, M. (2016). NN drops Brazile for feeding debate questions to Clinton. New York Post. http://nypost.com/2016/10/31/cnn-drops-brazile-for-feeding-debate-questions-to-clinton/
Smith, D. (2017). Scaramucci in furious, foul-mouthed attack on white house rivals. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/27/anthony-scaramucci-white-house-reince-priebus-steve-bannon
Sommers, J., & Demianyk, G. (2017). Donald Trump had the Most extraordinary press conference of his life, Clearing A High Bar’. Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/donald-trump-press-conference_uk_58a5eb5fe4b037d17d25d1ef.
Stares, P. B., & Yacoubian, M. (2007). Terrorism as a disease: An epidemiological model for countering Islamist extremism. Mathew B Ridgeway Centre for international Security Studies. Pittsburgh.
Stelter, B. (2017). Trump tweets shocking assault on Brzezinski, Scarborough. CNN. http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/29/media/mika-brzezinski-donald-trump-tweet/index.html.
Stolworthy, J. (2016). Donald Trump helps Stephen Colbert become most-watched late-night talk show host. Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/donald-trump-stephen-colbert-late-night-us-talk-show-jimmy-fallon-a7582986.html
Syverson, T. (2017). Linguistics can help conservatives and liberals agree on objective reality again. Quartz. https://qz.com/916319/the-linguistics-of-political-language-can-help-conservatives-and-liberals-agree-on-objective-reality-again
Tadayon, A. (2017). Reza Aslan of CNN and UC Riverside apologizes for swearing at trump on twitter. The Press Enterprise. http://www.pe.com/2017/06/04/reza-aslan-of-cnn-and-uc-riverside-apologizes-for-swearing-at-trump-on-twitter/
Tatum, S., & Acosta, J. (2017). Report: Trump continues to question Obama's birth certificate, CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/28/politics/donald-trump-barack-obama-birth-certificate-nyt/index.html
Thaler, M. (2016). Unhinged frames: Assessing thought experiments in normative political theory. British Journal of Political Science, 48, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123416000259
Thrush, G., & Haberman, M. (2017). Trump mocks Mika Brzezinski; says she was ‘bleeding badly from a face-lift’. The New York Time. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/29/business/media/trump-mika-brzezinski-facelift.html?_r=0
West, L. (2017). 100 days of gibberish–Trump has weaponised nonsense. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/25/trump-100-days-gibberish-weaponised-white-house-language-presidency
Wilkinson, W. (2019). The density divide: Urbanization, polarization, and populist backlash. Niskanen Center Research Paper.
Zurcher, A. (2018). How trump feud with 'dumb as a rock' Tillerson erupted. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46407993
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Barkho, L. (2023). The Linguistic Construction of Trump’s Social Reality. In: Akande, A. (eds) The Perils of Populism. Springer Studies on Populism, Identity Politics and Social Justice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36343-6_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36343-6_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-36342-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-36343-6
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)