Donald Trump Twitter Rhetorical Analysis

Morgan Mitchell

Professor Way

Advanced First-Year Composition

1 September 2015 Rhetorical Analysis of Donald Trump’s Twitter Page

Social media has changed the game of politics. In today’s world, with the public looking to smartphones and tablets as their primary source of news, politicians have been forced to adapt the tone and content of their message to fit this new, more connected audience. Perhaps no politician understands this more than notorious billionaire, real estate tycoon, and now presidential candidate, Donald Trump. Through utilization of social media, more specifically Twitter, combined with his disregard for sounding too extreme or politically incorrect, Trump has gained a massive web audience - over four million followers and

When it comes to establishing his credibility, Trump takes a very interesting approach - nearly his entire Twitter feed is filled with heinous exaggerations and blatant lies. Over the last several months, the self proclaimed ‘politician’ has made a number of false and misleading statements on the economy, healthcare, trade and terrorism, here are just a few examples: In June, Trump made a claim that economic growth had never been below zero until last quarter’s drop, when in reality, it has been below zero 42 times over the last 68 years. In another post, he declared the “real” unemployment rate to be as high as “18 to 20 percent, maybe even 21 percent.” There is absolutely no factual basis for this opinion. Trump claimed the five Taliban leaders exchanged for Sgt. Bergdahl in May of 2014 “are now back on the battlefield trying to kill us.” All five remain behind bars in Doha, Qatar where they continue to be strictly monitored, according to the State Department. Sense a pattern yet? Donald Trump will say anything and everything if he thinks it will benefit him, even if the statements he makes are utter falsehoods, which significantly compromises his credibility as a legitimate

The presidential campaign has simply become another post in the collective twitter feed of America, intertwined with the constant flow of hash-tagged selfies and irrelevant retweets. As I previously mentioned, social media has changed the way in which politicians communicate with voters, but it’s doing more than that alone. It has changed what our nation wants and expects from its prospective leaders. It seems as though now a candidate’s personality is valued over their policy, but it is a particular type of personality that seems to attract the attention of the average Twitter