Topic

Donald Trump’s presidential announcement speech is strongly political and focuses on two key topics: the American economy and American foreign policy.

Because the speaker’s overall intention is to win votes in the primary elections, he explores these topics in a way that he finds most suitable to his aim—by focusing on problems and the ways he claims he can solve t…

...

The American economy

With regards to the American economy, the speaker focuses on issues like increasing immigration, unemployment, healthcare problems caused by Obamacare, and poor infrastructure. Each of these issues are mentioned several times in the speech.

When he talks about immigration, the speaker focuses on illegal immigrants with criminal records: “It's coming from more than Mexico. It's coming from all ove…

...

American foreign policy

The topic of American foreign policy is also explored in detail. The speaker focuses on issues like terrorism, military interventions in the Middle East, and the economic relations with China, Japan, or Mexico, as well as bad international trade deals.

When Trump explores terrorism, he focuses on the rise of ISIS and the need to fight the terrorist organization: “Islamic terrorism is eating up large portions of the Midd…

...

Argumentation

There are two types of argumentation speakers can use to convince their audience to accept their claims. They can express their arguments openly, using direct (or open) argumentation, or they can rely on facts, examples, and case studies to imply their arguments indirectly, using hidden (or closed) argumentation.

Donald Trump’s presidential announcement speech is an example of extensive direct argumentation. Throughout the speech, Trump is very explicit about all his views and arguments. Here are only a couple of relevant examp…