Donald Trump's "acceptance speech" at 2020 republican national convention

Abstract

The diversity of the American presidents' rhetoric, notably in the last two decades, became a subject matter and a focal point in the field of discourse analysis. However, unlike the former American presidents, Donald Trump has marked the US rhetorical history with his unique style and his different way of using language. By the end of 2020, he delivered the Acceptance Speech at 2020 Republican National Convention in order to convince the American people to re-elect him for the second time as the president of the USA. This study aims to analyze this speech from a rhetorical perspective based on Jolliffe's Rhetorical Framework (2009), through identifying the rhetorical situation, the three rhetorical appeals (logos, ethos and pathos) as well as the surface features of the speech(diction, syntax, imagery and figurative language). Therefore, the research design of this study is descriptive based on both qualitative and quantitative method. The findings show that the former republican nominee delivered the speech within a specific rhetorical context, as a response to the republican nomination for 2020 elections, to a targeted audience with the aim to win the elections. Besides, the results indicate that Donald Trump made use of all the three rhetorical appeals to persuade his audience, but he inclined more to the use of pathos as compared to the other rhetorical appeals logos and ethos. Moreover, Donald Trump used specific diction, syntax, imagery and figurative language in order to strengthen his position and be more persuasive. To conclude, this study contributes in providing closer insights to the rhetoric used by Donald Trump in his acceptance speech in order to win the elections.