Abstract

Abstract Donald Trump’s campaign violated every rule of presidential campaigns, and few commentators thought that he had a chance to win the presidency. His success can be traced to the strong affective connection that he created with core supporters. Trump used a rhetoric of nationalist populism with a charismatic outsider persona, a rhetorical pattern that functioned as an affective genre, to create this connection. This pattern is evident in campaign rallies, his speech at the Republican National Convention, and his inaugural address. Trump’s successful use of a rhetoric of nationalist populism has important implications for the status of American democracy.

Journal
Rhetoric & Public Affairs
Published
2019-09-01
DOI
10.14321/rhetpublaffa.22.3.0343
Open Access
Closed
Topics

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Rhetoric Society Quarterly

Cites in this index (5)

  1. Rhetoric & Public Affairs
  2. Rhetoric & Public Affairs
  3. Rhetoric & Public Affairs
  4. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  5. Philosophy & Rhetoric
Also cites 13 works outside this index ↓
  1. 1. Anand Giridharadas, “Donald Trump Breaks with Tradition, and It’s Paying Off,” New York Times, March 14, 2…
  2. and Carolyn R. Miller, "Genre as Social Action," Quarterly Journal of Speech 70 (1984): 151-67.
  3. 13. Robert C. Rowland and Kirsten Theye, “The Symbolic DNA of Terrorism,” Communication Monographs 75 (2008):…
  4. 14. Jenny Edbauer Rice, “The ‘New’: Make a Case for Critical Affect Studies,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 94 …
  5. 20. Jamie Landau and Bethany Keeler-Jonker, “Conductor of Public Feelings: An Affective-Emotional Rhetorical …
  6. 22. Joshua Gunn, “On Speech and Public Release,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 13 (2010): 1-42.
  7. 25. Christopher J. Gilbert and John Louis Lucaites, “Bringing War Down to Earth: The Dialectic of Pity and Co…
  8. 26. Erin J. Rand, “An Inflammatory Fag and a Queer Form: Larry Kramer, Polemics, and Rhetorical Agency,” Quar…
  9. 32. Cas Mudde and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser, Populism: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford Universi…
  10. 43. Matt Grossmann and Daniel Thaler, “Mass-Elite Divides in Aversion to Social Change and Support for Donald…
  11. 52. Ronald F. Inglehart and Pippa Norris, “Trump, Brexit, and the Rise of Populism: Economic Have-Nots and Cu…
  12. 56 Although not focused on populist discourse, Rita Kirk Whillock shows how former KKK member David Duke taps…
  13. 58. Cas Mudde, “The Populist Zeitgeist,” Government and Opposition 39 (2004): 541-63.
CrossRef global citation count: 38 View in citation network →