Analysis

Our analysis of Donald Trump’s presidential announcement speech is built on the rhetorical pentagram model. Here is a short presentation of the analysis.

We will first look at the topics of the speech—the American economy and foreign policy—and help you discuss the way the speaker focuses on specific issues related to these themes, such as unemployment, immigration, terrorism and trade deals.

We will move to present the speaker in more details, looking at Donald Trump’s background and at how he uses the speech to suggest that he is the right candidate for the US presidency. We will then look at the audience, which was comprised of live supporters and media, as well as the general domestic and international public.

We will discuss the language the speaker uses to deliver the speech, looking at aspects such as signs of improvisation, tone, rhetorical devices, and forms of appeal, and how all these techniques reflect the speaker’s intention.

We will go into details with regards to the speaker’s intention of gaining the votes of the American electorate, which is constructed by pursuing smaller aims like criticizing the government and his political rivals or presenting his political platform and beliefs.

Finally, we will also look at the circumstances of the speech which will help you to put it in context, by considering Trump’s reputation and the political and social climate in the US at the time.

You can read the full analysis of the speech in the next pages of the study guide.

Further help

Do you want additional help with analysis of speeches? See our guide to speech analysis: