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| Photo: Yasmin Peyman |
I want to state here at the outset
that my topic is limited to the rhetoric of Donald Trump and how that became a
framework for a war on immigrants. Steven Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff for
Policy and Homeland Security Adviser in Trump’s cabinet, is clearly initiating
and in charge of the war on immigrants. That is without question. I am,
however, not dealing with Miller’s speech as it is rare that he speaks in
public, and when he does, while it is generally demeaning to immigrants, it
does not rise to the level of rhetoric we find in Trump’s speech.
Many dictators on the world stage like
Maduro, Bolsonaro, Modi, and others have subjugated immigrants, using similar
authoritarian style rhetoric as part of their message. I also want to
acknowledge that Trump and his rhetoric have not come out of a vacuum. The war on immigrants has deep roots in
colonialism, capitalism, white nationalism, and patriarchy in this country and worldwide.
These are important aspects of the immigration situation we find in the United
States at this time. However, these issues lay outside the scope of this essay.
I believe that Trumpism reflects a deep cultural rupture, a backlash by
right-wing supporters to not only economic but cultural dominance. I realize
that Trump’s rise to prominence is a reflection of dissatisfaction with the
capitalist system that makes a billionaire class that feeds off the rest of the
population as well as dissatisfaction with the failed neoliberal policies
instituted by Reaganomics in which the rich prosper by huge tax breaks and
inherited wealth, while the poor keep getting poorer, and struggle to survive.
I am focusing, though, on Donald Trump’s style of rhetoric, without
which, he most certainly would not have risen to power. I have taken examples
mostly from his first presidency and the run for that presidency because this
particular brand of rhetoric has not
been in clear focus in this second presidency, due, in part to the serious deterioration
of Trump’s general speaking ability, which probably is a function of
deteriorating health. What I want to highlight is how his use of language pigeonholed
and led to the victimization of immigrants in the United States. The
deportation to horrific prisons in other countries and the incarceration of immigrants in concentration
camps here in the United States is the logical outcome of the demonization of
immigrants which is exemplified in Trump’s rhetoric. That is the topic I will
address here.
Long before Donald Trump became
president in 2016, and then began his second term in 2024, there was a general
malaise in the country, in which many lower class and middle-class Americans
felt disillusionment and disengagement with the federal government. Since
Richard Nixon’s White House, there has been antipathy toward “cultural
elites”—Hollywood, academia, the media, the courts. These institutions were
blamed by conservative politicians for eroding
traditional American values. (Politico, 2024).
In 1980, President Reagan downsized government, instituted trickle-down economics, and gave huge tax cuts for the
wealthy. These tax cuts created a huge
national deficit. Although in Reagan’s presidency, there was a growth in jobs,
on the whole, trickle-down economics did not reach down to the lower class and
much of the middle class, who were worse off economically, and became
disillusioned with government. Donald Trump has found a way to tap into this general malaise of part of the
populace (Politico, 2024).
Donald Trump made the statement at a 2016
election campaign stop in South Carolina, “I know words. I have the best words”
(Trump, 2015). I will focus on how he
has created a following with his use of language. I will explore President
Trump’s words, his public discourse, in this piece. On one level, I do agree
that he is skilled or, at least in the recent past, was so skilled with using
language to persuade his audiences. Yet on the other hand, he uses half-truths,
distortions, and out and out lies to smear his opponents. He often makes
glaring grammatical mistakes, and goes off on tangents in his speeches. In 2025
Trump’s discourse is even less logical and more riddled with inaccurate usages
and appalling grammar. His speeches contain language blunders and points that often wander
from subject to subject, sometimes indiscriminately, or so it seems.
I contend that Trump’s public
discourse serves several functions: polarizing a general audience, shutting
down criticisms by claiming they are ‘fake news’, promoting white supremacy and
patriarchy, promoting a narrative about dangerous others (immigrants),
extoling wealthy nations and denigrating
poorer nations, making fun of differently abled individuals, and aligning with
the fundamental Christian right while disparaging other religions. Just how
does Trump get audiences to align with him by the choice of language he uses
and the way he delivers that language? However, nowadays this stereotyping of immigrants to this country,
has also boomeranged with a large swath of the immigrant population, his base,
turning against MAGA in his second presidency, due to the violence and murders
done by mostly untrained ICE (Immigration
and Customs Enforcement) agents and incarceration of largely non-criminal immigrants.
The conditions in these concentration camps are so abysmal as to have led to
serious illnesses and even deaths of some immigrants.
There is a huge disparity in the
sometimes eloquent and reassuring words of Donald Trump and that of the actions
of ICE agents against immigrants. It resembles hypnotism. Poor people
struggling to make ends meet for their families want to hold on to hope for
their future. Unfortunately, Trump’s rhetoric has little to do with reality. He
has tried to sell the populace on a better country with words that are a grave
mismatch from the actions of his administration.
What we are used to in the way
of language that presidents deliver is
quite different from the way that Donald Trump speaks. Presidential speeches
usually consist of highly formal, educated, professional language. With the
advent of television to the scene in presidential speeches in the Kennedy/Nixon
debate in 1960, visual polish was added to the dynamics of discourse. Some presidents, such as George W.
Bush, was an exception in the language he regularly used, which was in a less
formal register than we have experienced with prior presidents. Now we have an
entirely different kind of communication style with that of Trump, which
shatters our expectations of presidential speech. Yet Trump has been highly
successful in appealing to the masses with his speeches. How does he appeal to
his supporters?
Donald Trump’s rhetoric is known
for being populist, nationalistic, and confrontational. His language centers
around themes of crisis, division, and loyalty. He frames himself as an
outsider who is confronting a corrupt political establishment. He uses emotional
appeals, often stoking fear, a pledge to restore past national
"greatness", and simple,
repetitive language that drives home his message to his audience. He is able to
garner so much support that his followers have been likened to a cult, as many
are blindly loyal to him.
Crisis Rhetoric Which Invokes Fear,
Hatred, and Stereotyping of Immigrants
Trump’s use of impending crisis to
appeal to audiences is his characterization of the immigration issue. Trump has
asserted, “Our border is wide open, and drugs and criminal cartels are pouring
into our country on an hourly basis” (Santa Ana, et. al, 2019a, 17). To add fuel to the fire, he wields metaphors to
describe immigrants to enflame supporters. He states that immigrants coming
from Mexico are part of gangs that bring drugs to this country and commit
crimes. He said that Mexico is “sending its worst people, but with its
tremendous crime problem” (Arter, 2017) it is also toxic”; [drugs] “pouring
into this country are poisoning our youth (Santa Ana, et., al, 2019b, 17).
Trump also uses language to
stereotype immigrants, characterizing them as subhuman. “They butcher those
little girls. They slash them with machetes…They are animals” (Trump, 2017 a).
He uses a metaphor to describe the
process of immigration itself. “The Mexican border is sieve. People are pouring
into our country” (Fox News Insider, 2015). This
rhetoric supports his plan to build a wall between the US and Mexico.
Trump frames the immigration issue
as victimizing this country. He claims that immigrants widely attack and
brutally kill US citizens. In fact, immigrants commit much fewer crimes than
other Americans. U.S.-born citizens were
ten times more likely than immigrants to be incarcerated for committing
weapons-related offenses, five times more likely for violent offenses, more
than twice as likely for property crimes, and nearly twice as likely for drug
offenses (Library Publications). He cites an example
of one such attack, which is not at all representative of immigrant crime. Trump
asserts, “Countless Americans have been killed by illegal immigrants” (Santa
Ana, et., al, 2019b8). “Kate Steinle was
gunned down in her father’s arms in broad daylight on a San Francisco pier. Her
killer had been deported five times before” (Santa Ana et.al., 2019a, 15).
By constantly repeating these
distorting conceptual metaphors which scapegoat immigrants, Trump is using what
is called a synecdoche, or using a part of something to stand for the whole.
These metaphors include “criminal aliens”, “MS-13”, and “white victimhood”. As
has been cited, crimes committed by immigrants are much fewer than those
committed by the mainstream population. He uses
the “MS-13” synecdoche to stand for all gangs. “We are throwing MS-13
the hell out of here so fast” (Lanktree, 2017). It has already been mentioned
that Trump has taken examples of a few incidents of immigrant crime to stand
for and amplify the notion that this crime is much more widespread than it is.
During Trump’s presidential
campaign, on October 11, 2024 in Aurora, Colorado, Trump gave a speech against
the thousands of Venezuelan migrants in Aurora, declaring that he would use the
Alien Enemies Act to remove those from enemy countries, to pursue migrant gangs
and criminal networks. He accused Vice President Kamala Harris of importing an
army of illegal alien criminals “to prey upon innocent American citizens” (Politico,
2024).
He ramped up his rhetoric even more
into conspiracy theories as when he repeated false claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating pets. Trump has demonized minority
groups and used increasingly dark, graphic imagery to talk about migrants in
every one of his speeches since the Sept. 10 presidential debate, according to
a Politico review of more than 20 campaign events (Politico, 2024).
According to Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a
history professor at New York University, Trump has been progressively
instilling hatred of immigrants, similar
to the way it is done in authoritarian, fascist regimes. “So immigrants are
crime. Immigrants are anarchy. They’re taking their jobs, but now they’re also
animals who are going to kill us or eat our pets or eat us, “That’s how you get
people to feel that whatever is done to them, as in mass deportation, rounding
them up, putting them in camps, is OK (Politico, 2024).
Why do Trump Supporters Believe His
Rhetoric?
A few key factors may explain why
some become Trump supporters:
- Anxiety
and Fear. Many in this country have anxiety and fear,
due to the fact that many families need to work multiple jobs to make ends
meet, may not have adequate health care, and struggle to provide education and
childcare for their families. Trump uses fear mongering and creates scapegoats, like blaming
immigrants, Joe Biden and Democrats, or the media. Using the old Ku Klux Klan slogan, “America
First”, Trump appeals to people who may believe that many jobs have gone
overseas, and that we focus too much on providing resources for those in other
countries. For example, due to DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) cuts,
USAID was gutted, which was a major source of soft diplomacy in the world. These
supporters of MAGA (Make America Great Again) feel a sense of belonging or identity with
Trump and other MAGA, as a result of promises Trump made to lower grocery and energy prices, and deport
immigrants, which Trump states are causing crime waves, using social services
needed for the general population, and taking jobs (AP News, 2025).
- Echo
Chambers. Many
Trump supporters live in "echo chambers," in which they only hear news from media like
Fox News and some social media platforms, in which alternative views are not
widely presented, and which often promote right-wing agenda and conspiracy
theories, as well. They only hear opinions and news from people who think like
them.
- Charismatic
Personality Politics.
Even when Trump’s assertions are untrue,
many supporters believe him, due to his charismatic personality and speaking
style. He is viewed as someone who speaks for them, who challenges the
political elite, and doesn’t abide by norms of political correctness. This
strengthens their emotional attachment to him.
- Creation
of a Dichotomy of “Us” and “Them”
- Trump has
been effective in creating his own brand of negative populism through his
rhetoric. He has made immigrants into
“them” as opposed to “us.” He targets out-groups like immigrants, so they
are considered “the other”. Therefore, when he has ICE kidnap
immigrant and send them to newly created concentration camps, like Alligator
Alcatraz in the Everglades in Florida, or in Delaney Hall in New Jersey, resistance
is lessened, especially among his supporters,
since he has characterized immigrants as being sub-human (Baltus, 2024).
Conclusion
Tapping into a general malaise on
the part of a large swath of the population, especially those in the lower class and some in the middle class,
Trump has been able to create a huge following which greatly helped his
re-election as president in 2024, despite felony convictions, a sexual abuse
conviction, and inciting a riot against our government in January, 2021. Trump’s
supporters are fiercely loyal to him, sometimes even when he has not delivered
on campaign promises, as with prices not going down, and his not ending the
Russian War on Ukraine, or the Iran War. He has kept his promise to deport
immigrants, though most of these immigrants have not been convicted of any
crime, which has caused a backlash against him.
Part of Trump’s success is the
manner in which he wields words. He has an uncanny ability to appeal to his
base through fear mongering discourse, in which he promises to deport
immigrants. He does this by negative stereotyping of immigrants with metaphors
like ‘animals’, ‘criminals’, terming immigration as a flood, and immigrants as
an army to prey on American citizens. He also uses synecdoche in which he cites
one example to stand for the whole group, such as the killing of a girl by one
immigrant, and broadening that to accusing all immigrants of being murderers.
He uses repetition successfully to sink in his ideas. He exudes a charismatic,
upbeat speaking style, though lately, he has rambled, made some incoherent
statements, and seems to be struggling cognitively. Still his MAGA cult followers
seem mesmerized by Trump and his language. Though, recently, he has lost many
MAGA followers due to his immigration policy, the war on Iran, not releasing
the Epstein Files, and other policies that are not supported by most MAGA
followers, and he has even lately lost some of his stalwart Republican base.
Perhaps the hold that Trump’s evocative
rhetoric has had on many of his supporters has somewhat faded, and the spell
can start to be broken. This is the challenge faced by all people of goodwill
in this country. We must rise to the occasion and bring in a new government
that is based on providing for the safety, economic security, education, and
health care of all. We must fill the vacuum created by the dethronement of
Trump and his allies. In part, we must take to the streets and to the media, as
well, to create more alternative media outlets, and deliver the message loudly and
clearly that all have a right to prosperity and happiness. Prout (Progressive
Utilization Theory) is based on the premise that all people, animals, and
plants have a right to thrive in this world. Prout tenets include providing
minimum necessities of life to everyone, regardless of gender, race, country of
origin, age, or religion. It is with the implementation of Prout that we can
make this the country we all want to see.
Notes
Arter, Melanie. 2017. “Trump:
Mexico Will Pay for the Wall- ‘It May be Through
Reimbursement.’” CNSNews.com,
Aug. 28,2017. https://bit.ly/2JxbQiG.
Baltus, Howard. “Delving
into the Minds of Trump Supporters”. Democrats Abroad. September
19, 2024.
Fox News Insider. 2015.
“Trump on Immigration Comments: ‘I Can Never Apologize for the
Truth.”’ Fox News.
July 5, 2015. https://bit.ly./2Pilo2m.
https://apnews.com/projects/trump-campaign-promise-tracker/
https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/non-us-citizens-federal-criminal-justice-system-
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/12/trump-racist-rhetoric-immigrants-001835371998-2018.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/12/trump-racist-rhetoric-immigrants-001835371998-2018.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/12/trump-racist-rhetoric-immigrants-001835371998-2018.
Lanktree, Graham. 2017,
“Trump Says Immigrant Gang Members ‘Slice and Dice’ Young,
Beautiful Girls.” Newsweek,
July 26, 2017. https://bit.ly2Wpb64A.
Maheshvarananda, Dada
and Mirra Price. Tools to Change the World; Study Guide Based on the
Progressive Utilization
Theory (Prout). Copenhagen: Proutist Universal, 2019.
Santa Ana, et. al. 2019a.
“Documenting the President’s Verbal Animas against Immigrants to
Defend DACA Grantees.” The
President’s Intent, January, 2019.
www.the
presidentsintent.com/issue-final-report.
Santa Ana, et. al. 2019b.
“Documenting the President’s Verbal Animas against Immigrants to
Defend DACA Grantees.” The
President’s Intent, January, 2019.
www.the
presidentsintent.com/issue-final-report.
Sarkar, Prabhat Ranjan. Proutist
Economics: Discourses on Economic Liberation. Calcutta:
Ananda Marga Publications, 1992.
Trump, Donald. 2015. Donald Trump
Campaign Rally in Hilton Head, South Carolina.” C-
SPAN video, 00:24. March 7, 2017. www.c-span.org/video/?c4659877/trump-words.
Trump, Donald. 2017a. “The
Inaugural Address.” WhiteHouse.gov. January 20, 2017.
https://bit.ly/31KVole.
