Circumstances

Donald Trump's presidential announcement speech was delivered in front of the speaker’s own office building, Trump Tower, in Manhattan, New York on 16th of June 2016. His decision to present the speech here suggests his determination to present himself as a powerful self-made businessman.

To understand the context of the speech, you should know that the presidential election in the US is a two-stage process. In the first stage—called primaries—candidates compete to become the official nominee of a party. At this stage, candidates run against other candidates from the same party. In the second stage, the official party nominees run for becoming US President—one for each party.

The speech you have to analyze was delivered at the beginning of the first stage of the election process, the primaries. Donald Trump was hoping to become the Republican Party's presidential nominee. This is why the speaker attacks other Republicans rallying against him, such as Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio: “I mean, you looked at Bush, it took him five days to answer the question on Iraq.” (ll. 371-372); “Then I looked at Rubio. He was unable to answer the question, is Iraq a good thing or bad thing? He didn't know.” (ll. 374-375);

When Donald Trump gave his presidential announcement speech,...