Analysis of Rhetorical Devices in Donald Trump's State of Union Speech

This essay provides a comprehensive rhetorical analysis of Donald Trump's State of the Union address, focusing on the application of Aristotelian principles of persuasion: ethos, logos, and pathos. The analysis examines how Trump employed these elements to connect with his audience, justify his claims, and persuade listeners. The essay explores specific examples from the speech, such as Trump's references to climate change, the media, and economic progress, to illustrate his use of emotional appeals (pathos), logical arguments (logos), and establishment of credibility (ethos). Furthermore, the essay discusses how Trump's use of language, vocabulary, and emotional connections aimed to resonate with various segments of the American population, ultimately influencing their perceptions and beliefs. The analysis also considers the effectiveness of Trump's approach in light of the political and social context, referencing supporting literature.

Running head: ENGLISH LITERATURE
English Literature
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The use of ethos, logos and pathos had been implied by Aristotle in his writings
thousands of years ago. This approach is still valid in a number of ways within the society. In
this paper the State of Union address by the US President Donald Trump will be put under the
lens and the linking will be done on the three factors mentioned above.
In this paper, the declarations made by Mr. Trump and his claims will be justified from
the viewpoint of ethos, logos and pathos. All these three factors are regarded as very crucial
indicators on how the claims made by one person can be justified.
Ethos is basically the ethical appeal made towards the readers. This is made to show that
author is credible enough and he is saying the truth. People should believe in his credibility
because he is a truthful person and bringing out the necessary facts in front of the readers
(Edlund: 19). Here the author will always choose the proper language that would be very helpful
to persuade all the readers.
‘Pathos’ is used to help the speaker to approach readers from an emotional point of view.
Through this method, the speaker will approach the readers by being emotional. In this scenario,
author always uses the language through which he can appeal to the readers in a very cordial
manner. He does this so he can attract the sympathy of the readers.
Thus, the speaker will attain the pity from the audience and establish his thoughts. This
emotional tone will always help the author to make readers convince he is there to help them
(Wróbel: 426).
The third form or element in this context is ‘logos’. Here the author will always apply the
logical forms so he can convince the readers about his beliefs. Through the use of ‘logos’ all the

2ENGLISH LITERATURE
insights of human beings can be explored. The Union State speech by President Trump will be
analyzed in the following sections.
The persuasiveness of the Trump’s speech can be identified from several aspects. He has
used the most commonly regarded elements of persuasion propagated by Aristotle. All these
elements are very clear in the rhetoric of Trump because his aim was persuade the people in his
favor.
The communication between the President of a country and its people must contain the
elements of emotion, logic and ethical considerations.
Otherwise, it would not have been possible to convince the listeners about his credibility.
Trump addressed the emotional connections between him and his people. He also made
statements about the prejudices and desires of the common people.
The truthfulness of the statements of Trump would be considered later but the immediate
effects of audience were the most important things in this discourse.
In his speech, Trump said that climate change is a ‘hoax’ and he also described the media
to be the enemy of American people. The linguistic style and its use is also very effective for
Trump in various ways. The use of emotions is also seen in the speech made by Trump when
regularly used the name of his enemy, Hilary Clinton.
He is aware of the fact most people have a very negative feeling towards Hilary Clinton
and he utilized that public emotion for his benefits. He tends to use such language that would be
very useful to grasp the attention of various groups within the American community. His use of
strong vocabulary invokes his passion for what he is saying.

3ENGLISH LITERATURE
In the last State Union speech, Trump highlighted all the important things for United
States and showed the progress they achieved in the last few years after the global economic
distress. He was very proud while announcing that USA was on the rise and their enemies were
fading away because they were not able to succeed equaling USA.
Trump was desperate to prove his point by saying jobs in USA were booming and this
helped the economic growth (Schaff). Therefore, his views completely depended on the factors
that took place during that time.
He highlighted over and over that decay of America from the grounds of economy was
going far away. They were quickly launching many projects that looked to improve the quality of
life for Americans (MacWilliams: 719).
This is quite similar to the pathos because he was trying to convince all his readers in an
emotional manner (Koh: 413). He was well aware that all Americans loved their country
immensely.
The aspect of nationalism would surely lead them to trust in the words of Trump. The
elements of logos are also very much present in the claims made by Donald Trump (Schaff). He
claimed that overall income of the country was increasing and this proved to be relatively true.
Trump made some optimistic comments about the development of the United States.
Most critics of international relations are of the opinion that speech by Trump was indeed a very
effective one.
Aristotle was the first person who gave an insight into the three ways of the effective
argument that would win the hearts of the listeners.

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The use of these factors helped Trump to achieve his objective (Schaff). He presented an
array of facts that led him to make people believe he was right. He also gave some ethical
directions through which people began to believe that all claims made by Trump were effective
and efficient.
It should be remembered in this scenario that he had to appeal to the conscience of men.
The appeals had to be made in a way so the people believed it to be logical. The level of
conscience and intellect of everyone is not the same (Schaff).
So, Trump had to take the decisions in a manner that he could convince everyone in the
Senate. The Americans wanted more development for the country so Trump had to ensure it
through using the three elements by Aristotle.
The use of emotion was the most effective way in this discourse since the people could
feel the sympathy with the speaker when he is addressing a room full of people (Fuchs: 50).
In the most recent State of Union address in the Senate, Trump had made a thorough
appeal to the loyalty of American people towards the nation (Widyawardani: 17). The intellects
of the people are different in the country numerous people are sharper in knowledge gaining,
smarter in achieving the goals and their conscience is developed in a fine manner (Schaff). The
sense of decency of American people had also been discussed by President Trump.
The desire for the protection of the country has also been reflected through the speech of
the President Trump (Fuchs: 50). Thus, the sense of nationalism has been very important to gain
the notice of the common people of the country. This is where he used the emotional approach to
win the trust.

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The purpose of Trump was to weaken his opponents by delivering a message that would
convince the people (Rachman and Yunianti: 10). After the ending of the speech, the situation
was in the favor of Trump and he showed himself as the loving and caring guardian of the
country.
He was also ethical in his approach when he stressed on the issue of self-preservation
(Schaff). The high amount of self-preservation would only ascertain the overall success of the
nation in all terms.
It is debatable whether Trump made studies on Aristotle or he knows the artistic nature of
persuasion. In the initial phases (MacWilliams: 719). Trump was portrayed as a rigid person
from his dialogues and campaigns. At the end of this speech the tables were turned entirely.
The true nature of a good salesman is reflected through Trump because of his abilities to
persuade the people of the country through his words. He is quite aware of the emotional
attributes of his countrymen (Bialik: 12).
Therefore, he was pretty sure that these emotional speeches and teary approach would
soften their hearts and minds. So, he chose to address the common people with the emotional
approach so they would soon begin to trust in his words (Koh: 413).
After that, Trump used the ethical approach and highlighted on the importance of self-
preservation for American citizens. Finally, he added some logical facts that United States
created seven million new jobs after Trump won the election. The growth of employment
signified the rise of economy (Dow: 137).

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Therefore, people believed Trump was doing his best to attain the ‘American Dream’. He
also brought the employment growth of Hispanic Americans, African-Americans and Asian-
Americans. There was a mix of pathos and logos as he was able to convince the minority section
of the country too (Bialik: 12).
On a concluding note, it has to be mentioned that Donald Trump’s State of Union speech
was a success story as he was able to convince many people under his favor. He used all the
three elements of Aristotle, namely pathos, ethos and logos in his speech so he could convince
the people properly.

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References
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nation." Pew Research Center 29 (2018).
Dow, Bonnie J. "Taking Trump Seriously: Persona and Presidential Politics in 2016." Women's
Studies in Communication 40.2 (2017): 136-139.
Edlund, John R. "Ethos, logos, pathos: Three ways to persuade." Retrieved on 29 (2014).
Fuchs, Christian. "Donald Trump: A critical theory-perspective on authoritarian
capitalism." tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a
Global Sustainable Information Society 15.1 (2017): 1-72.
Koh, Harold Hongju. "The Trump Administration and International Law." Washburn LJ 56
(2017): 413.
MacWilliams, Matthew C. "Who decides when the party doesn’t? Authoritarian voters and the
rise of Donald Trump." PS: Political Science & Politics 49.4 (2016): 716-721.
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Rachman, Andhita, and Sofi Yunianti. "Critical discourse analysis in Donald Trump presidential
campaign to win American’s heart." Tell Journal 5.2 (2017): 8-17.
Schaff, Erin. "Full Transcript: Trump’S 2020 State Of The Union Address". Nytimes.Com, 2020,
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/us/politics/state-of-union-transcript.html.

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Stucki, Iris, and Fritz Sager. "Aristotelian framing: logos, ethos, pathos and the use of evidence
in policy frames." Policy sciences 51.3 (2018): 373-385.
Widyawardani, Yusri Ika. "Rhetorical Analysis of Donald Trump's Presidential Candidacy
Announcement Speech." Undergraduate Program, Sanata Dharma University,
Yogyakarta (2016).
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