The Use Of Rhetoric In Donald Trump's Speech

The campaign launch speech is an important part of a presidential race because he or she is setting the stage for the rest of their campaign; and hopefully the people of the United States will react positively and be affected positively by their speech. Therefore, it is normal to expect a campaign speech to be filled with rhetorical appeals; whether the speech is conveyed through text or video, the audience has to read with careful eyes, and listen with careful ears. The use of rhetoric is everywhere around us that it is easy to let them slip by and not think much of it. Donald Trump’s presidential announcement speech on June 16th, 2015 in New York in front of the Trump Tower has caused much upheaval in the world of media, and Hilary Clinton’s …show more content…
It is important to rhetorically analyze Trump’s presidential announcement speech carefully and unbiased; it was the beginning of a collective group of citizens putting our country’s future in his hands. To fully understand Trump’s success and victory requires understanding his mastery of the figures of rhetoric. Before analyzing the use of rhetoric in Donald Trump’s speech, it’s important to first understand rhetoric. Scholar Sonja K. Foss indicates the use of rhetoric is to communicate with one another in order to persuade, to facilitate understanding, to encourage change, and to tell us what reality is (Foss, 6).
Trump’s intended audience while giving the speech is to his loyal supporters. This is indicated when Trump scrutinizes Obama as a leader by providing an analogy saying imagine the New English Patriots and Tom Brady playing against your high school football team. That’s the difference between China’s leaders and our leaders. He describes Obama as a “negative force,” “stupid,” and a “bad negotiator.” He backs up these claims with evidence of Obama’s bad choices. “He’s been a negative force. He wasn’t a cheerleader; he was the opposite. We