Trump's speech style: performing the exceptional everyman

A businessman and tv property agelong earlier helium turned politician, US President Donald Trump has shattered the mould of however White House leaders typically enactment -- and talk.

On signifier helium often appears to beryllium shooting from the hip, with his meandering digressions, catchphrases, blunt insults and changeless usage of superlatives.

But what stands retired from a person look astatine Trump's distinctive rhetoric style?

As helium reaches the archetypal 100 days of his 2nd term, present is simply a roundup of findings from an AFP investigation of 433 hours of Trump's nationalist speaking.

These are compared with millions of sentences of conversations and speeches from mean Americans transcribed by the collaborative task American National Corpus.

- Winners and losers -

Competition-related rhetoric dominates, with the satellite often divided betwixt "winners" and "losers",  "us" and "them", those who are "very interesting" and those who are "pathetic".

The information shows that competition-related words are 5.4 times much contiguous than successful the code of regular Americans.

Trump besides uses superlative adjectives doubly arsenic overmuch arsenic average, and superlative adverbs 3.6 times much than average.

Descriptions of others are seldom neutral successful Trump speak. They are alternatively depicted arsenic enemies oregon insulted arsenic animals oregon pollutants, often done schoolyard-type nicknames similar "Sleepy Joe" Biden oregon "Crazy Kamala" Harris.

The demonizing simplifies issues -- oregon oversimplifies -- connected purpose.

"Mapping authorities onto warlike contention results successful a problematic simplification successful complexity," wrote linguist Anthony Koth from the Rice University, successful his publication to the 2022 publication "Linguistic Inquiries into Donald Trump's Language."

Rules, referees, and opponents go "one and the same: the force oregon opposing unit whose nonsubjective is to contradict Trump".

Linguist Ulrike Schneider from the University of Mainz pointed to Trump's caller rhetoric connected planetary tariffs.

Politics and the system are a zero-sum game, "where one's perceived losses travel astir due to the fact that of another's perceived illegitimate gain," helium told AFP.

- Trump arsenic exceptional -

Trump seeks to entreaty to the communal American portion simultaneously emphasizing a imaginativeness of himself arsenic an exceptional figure.

"I deliberation that's what (his) connection does, helium performs being mean and helium performs being extraordinary: beardown and wide successful his vision," said Schneider.

"You request to beryllium perceived arsenic the feline adjacent door. But astatine the aforesaid clip you besides request to beryllium that you're this benignant of messiah, this person figure", said Schneider.

Trump uses a superlative each 19 adjectives -- doubly arsenic often arsenic the mean American (every 41 adjectives).

Among his favourites is "greatest." He insists helium is determination to bushed records, his pledges and actions are "never seen", "never happened", "like never", preferably "in the past of our country".

The information finds that Trump says "in the past of our country" connected mean each 5 minutes.

- Businessman banter -

Before the White House Trump was a spot developer and TV prima connected "The Apprentice," wherever helium played a palmy tycoon. He continues to speech successful the aforesaid style, with repetitive, abbreviated sentences -- 2 words shorter than the modular -- and relentlessly self-promoting.

One of his astir antithetic traits is to notation to himself successful the 3rd person: Trump says the connection "Trump" each six minutes.

For example, instrumentality the president's show astatine an Oval Office gathering this April wherever helium signed a decree ending protections for a ample swath of ocean. At the ceremony, helium boasted that helium had antecedently ended the protections during his archetypal term, lone for his successor, Biden, to instrumentality the country to a no-fishing zone.

"I did it past time. And they undid it. That's wherefore we person to enactment president for a agelong time," Trump said, referring to himself arsenic "we."

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