Jennifer Mercieca, "Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump" (Texas A&M UP, 2020)

New Books in American Studies · May 27, 2020 · 54m

Polarization, a disaffected and frustrated electorate, and widespread distrust of government, media, and traditional politicians set the stage in 2016 for an unprecedented presidential contest. For many, Donald Trump’s campaign speeches and other rhetoric seemed on the surface to be simplistic, repetitive, and disorganized. In Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump (Texas A&M University Press, 2020), Jennifer Mercieca shows that Trump’s rhetoric was anything but. As a political communication expert, Mercieca describes the Trump campaign’s expert use of the common…