There is no doubt in everyone’s mind that current GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s plans and opinions are outlandish, eccentric and leave a lasting impression on the listener (whether it’s a positive or negative impression). For non-Trump supporters, his speeches are horrifying; they outline the numerous xenophobic, racist, sexist and just generally hateful plans he intends to implement in order to “make America great again." Trump supporters, and seemingly the majority of Americans, however, believe his speeches are nothing of the sort. These people are inspired, liberated and revitalized by what Trump is saying and completely support his policies.
Non-Trump supporters are stumped: How are so many people supportive of a candidate whose proposed policies are centered on prejudice and who demonstrates minimal knowledge of the workings of the federal government? The answer lies in his use of rhetoric to play on people’s existing prejudices and tell people what they want to hear.
One speech, in particular, that effectively demonstrates this idea is one from early in the campaign, when Trump first explained his method for controlling illegal immigration. This brief speech is from the first Fox News Republican debate in August 2015, which would imply that the speech’s intended audience would be viewers of Fox News, or people with a conservative mindset, as about 47 percent of Fox News viewers identify as Republican. In this case, in terms of immigration reform, a Fox News poll stated that conservatives are most concerned with sealing and protecting our borders as well as creating a more thorough and rigorous process for immigrants to become American citizens. Intense opinions, such as this one, truly demonstrate how strongly conservatives feel about immigration and undocumented immigrants. These opinions also prove the genuine fear and disdain conservatives have against immigrants; how could they form such powerful and negative thoughts about one particular group if they didn’t hold any concern about them in some way? Using these strong opinions, Donald Trump is able to use rhetoric that appeals to emotion in his speech in order to reinforce the fear conservatives hold for undocumented immigrants.
In his speech, Trump refers to the majority of undocumented immigrants as “rapists, criminals [and] drug dealers,” “the bad ones” and ‘illegals,” which further reinforces the thoughts held by most conservatives that all undocumented immigrants are bad and detrimental to the U.S. on all grounds and deserve to be deported from our country. These hateful words kindle the flaming fire of fear and hate held toward undocumented immigrants and further propels people who feel this way to support anybody who agrees with them. There are no facts, logical or otherwise, given about the actions of undocumented immigrants and the governments that support them; there are only opinions and feelings, mostly concerning anger and fear. This heavy enforcement of anger and fear held by his audience within his speech allows Trump to effectively gain the support of these people and convince them to back his proposed plans.
Being able to gain supporters purely by appealing to their strong emotions has clearly been an effective strategy that has allowed Trump to dominate the polls and make him even more popular than he previously was. It is for this reason it is extremely important to be able to see Trump’s technique for what it is and not automatically feel compelled to be convinced of his ideas. Maybe now supporters of Trump can see him for who he really is and what he really supports and make an educated decision on whether or not they really want to vote for him.
