On 22 July, Donald Trump was officially nominated to represent the GOP at the Republican National Convention. He gave a lengthy speech not only to the thousands of people in the same room as him, but also broadcast on national television. I have listened to his speech and I have gone back and read it again with the intent of digging a little deeper and finding more meaning in what I just heard. Using a linguistic tool called Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), let’s look at the words and phrases that Trump used in his speech and what additional meanings they carry in relation to the subjects he chose to talk about.

The Presidency As A Business Venture

Trump spends a lot of time talking about the U.S.’s budget deficit. He says, “I have made billions of dollars in business making deals -- now I’m going to make our country rich again.” He always refers back to his experience in the world of business. This is not the first time that he has talked about how much money he has made. What he hasn’t mentioned here, and I think that this is just as important as what he is actually saying, is that he has also struggled financially in the past and yes, he has made some poor business deals and decisions that have utterly failed (Trump Steaks from the Sharper Image, anyone?)

He also mentions that he will stand up for workers and support fair trade policies and this this will be a “signature feature of [his] presidency.” “Signature feature” is a phrase often applied to products that we’re trying to sell. This was a startling phrase to be applied to policy and a presidency. You are not trying to sell a presidency and being president is not purely making business decisions.

Represent The Represented

Trump talks about the police who have been killed recently in Dallas, TX and Baton Rouge, LA. It is tragic that these officers lost their lives. But what about the lives of the other people involved in this same issue that are also being lost? There is no mention of Black Lives Matter or the message they represent. Not one. He mentions very non-specifically that communities with a majority of black and latino residents are not safe, but doesn’t mention anything specific about how to help them.

He says that black and latino people, and specifically the children, will be “treated equally, and protected equally.” But I have a problem with this and so do many others living in the U.S. In the world of Education, a world that I am earning my degree in and that is helping me earn my Minnesota teaching license, we pay greater attention to equity. Equity is making sure that everyone gets what they need in order to have the same chance of success. I have resources that others in my community do not. Those resources will make it easier for me to succeed and these are things that not everyone has. If you give everyone, despite what they already have, the same kind of help (maybe extra college prep classes, scholarships for everyone, summer school, etc.), you’re not solving the problem. The problem remains the same. Equal won’t solve anything. Equity will. Equity creates equality. When this is not something that goes through your brain as you speak about disadvantaged communities, I cannot believe that you will be able to solve this problem.

Let’s Talk About How Evil Hillary Clinton Is

One thing that was appalling both while listening to Trump’s speech and again while reading it, was how often Trump felt the need to bring down Hillary Clinton and cast her in an evil light. I know that there are some people that aren’t very big fans of her, but I thought he went too far-- twisting facts and giving Clinton too much credit for some of the horrible things that are happening in the world.

I thought it was interesting that he would spend so much time on Hillary Clinton, given the fact that he is speaking in front of an audience that feels overwhelming support for him. He spent so much time talking about how horrible she is and how she has really screwed up the U.S. government and foreign relations. It felt like he was trying to convince his audience to feel the same way. And I’m sure that a lot of people in this audience feel that way already.

Trump says, “In 2009, pre-Hillary, ISIS was not even on the map.”

He continues to say, “Libya was cooperating. Egypt was peaceful. Iraq was seeing a reduction in violence. Iran was being choked by sanctions. Syria was under control. After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have? ISIS has spread across the region, and the world. Libya is in ruins, and our Ambassador and his staff were left helpless to die at the hands of savage killers. Egypt was turned over the radical Muslim brotherhood, forcing the military to retake control. Iraq is in chaos.”

Later, he ends this part of the speech with, “This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction and weakness.”

This is a problematic part of the speech whether you support Hillary Clinton or not. When you take a look at these issues individually, there is too much going on to blame these events on Hillary Clinton. The way he phrases this section of his speech, he is saying that Hillary Clinton is the sole cause of our world’s problems, which is simply false. There are too many moving parts to blame these things on one person. Therefore, Trump is spreading falsehoods, plain and simple. These falsehoods aren’t only directed toward Clinton, but the statistics he gives are also false many times.

“Americanism, Not Globalism”

Trump talks a lot about how the U.S. isn’t taken very seriously anymore and, as his campaign slogan says, we need to Make America Great Again. There is a call to focus inwards, on ourselves, and solve our problems. There is a call for Nationalism (one that has appeared not just in this speech, but in basically every speech Trump has given in his pursuit to become President. He is alienating the rest of the world. This is dangerous. The U.S. is starting to resemble, in some ways, Germany in the 1930s and ‘40s. We need other countries in order to function. This man clearly doesn’t have a clue about foreign policy and relations and that makes me nervous for our future.

There is a lot to this speech that can’t fit into this article. I encourage you to read through our two candidates’ speeches and read critically. Don’t just settle for what is said at face-value. Trump or Clinton will be our next president and we can’t make this decision lightly and as if it doesn’t matter.