Negative Rhetoric in Donald Trump’s Political Discourse and its Implications

Abstract

The present dissertation examines Donald Trump's political discourse that prevailed during his electoral campaign as well as during his four years in office, which was characterized by his verbal assaults that were mostly directed at racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, the news media, and prominent politicians. First, the present study examines the problem of rhetorical violence in American political discourse, and investigates key events in American history that have led to a current culture of aggressive political discourse. Next, the work analyses the acts of violence and hate crimes that targeted minorities during Trump’s presidential campaign speeches and into his incumbency, and the ties found between Trump’s rhetoric and hate crimes. Then, it investigates the main groups most affected by his negative and violent political rhetoric, and examines the impact of Trump’s political rhetoric on racial minorities based on an analysis of racial, religious, or ethnic crime statistics. The study reveals how Trump’s divisive political discourse, which coincided with the growth of farright activism, affected the national stability of the United States society, government, politics, and culture. It concludes that the Trump’s hateful, provocative, and aggressive rhetoric caused harm to the stability and security of the United States, and had damaging implications on US global affairs. It suggests that US policy makers had to regulate laws regarding political discourse particularly when running political campaigns.