Certainly it has been frustrating for many of us to watch a person we regard as personally foul and politically despicable gain office and then continue to hold the fawning loyalty of too many. One thing I have mentioned to friends over the past few years is the one clear skill I give him credit for which is he understands PR and he is a highly effective carnival barker. The way by which Trump communicates is central to his success. The Economist breaks down his syntax. His use of phrases reflects several of his core communication tenets which make him quite effective (or perhaps more descriptively dangerous).
1) He simplifies complex issues into soundbites (MAGA is an example and regardless of what one thinks of him or its implications it will go down as an historically impactful slogan)
2) He exhibits supreme and unwavering self-confidence and self-belief
3) He NEVER admits error
4) He always acts with a swagger that enraptures his supporters
If one had read much history and steps back to think of those leaders in the past who have used these techniques some pretty scary examples come to mind...
From the Economist:
"His linguistic quirks reveal the salesmanship that has made his career"
“Underpinning Mr Trump’s distinctive language is an extreme confidence
in his own knowledge..Mr Trump creates his own “reality distortion field”. One of
his signature tropes is “not a lot of people know…” He has introduced the complicated
nature of health care, or the fact that Abraham Lincoln was the first
Republican president, as truths that are familiar only to a few. A related
sound-bite is “nobody knows more about...than I do”. The fields of expertise Mr
Trump has touted this way include campaign finance, technology, politicians,
taxes, debt, infrastructure, the environment and the economy.
His critics have often
attributed this to narcissism, but a complementary explanation is that it is
also one of his strengths—salesmanship. In Mr Trump’s framing, he is in
possession of rare information. He is therefore able to cut a customer a
special deal “not a lot of people know” about. Should you be tempted to take
your business to a competitor, he will remind you that “nobody knows more
about” what is on offer than he does.
And how does he convince
listeners he really does know what he’s talking about? His language constantly indicates self-belief. …Mr Trump rarely hesitates and hardly ever says “um” or “uh”.
When he needs to plan his next sentence—as everyone must—he often buys time by
repeating himself. This reinforces the impression that he is supremely
confident and that what he’s saying is self-evident.
Perhaps the most striking
element of Mr Trump’s uncompromising belief in his sales technique can be
glimpsed in an unusual place: his mistakes. Mr Trump is often presented as a
linguistic klutz, saying things that make so little sense that his detractors
present them as proof of major cognitive decline.
All people make some
slips and stumbles…Mr Trump regularly makes errors but his signature quality, by
contrast, is to lean into them. Take a recent interview
with Fox News, in which he talked about governors’ differing attitudes towards
masks. Some are keener than others about requiring people to wear them to slow
the spread of the coronavirus. Or, as Mr Trump put it, “they’re more mask
into”.
What is remarkable is not
the mistake. It is easy for anyone to go down a syntactic blind alley. Many
people will say something like “they’re more mask” and then realise there is
nowhere to go. The sentence, in linguists’ terms, requires “repair”, which
usually involves backtracking. Unless, that is, you are Mr Trump, in which case
you confidently intone “into” and move on, giving no hint of trouble.
This refusal to concede
blunders shows up in more serious ways, of course, such as the
president’s unwillingness to take responsibility for his administration’s
missteps during the pandemic. It also helps explain two mysteries. The first is
the odd disjunct between words that seem nonsensical on the page and a stage
presence that enraptures audiences—it is Mr Trump’s assertive persona
that convinces more than his words.
The second is how this
works on his fans. In a recent survey conducted by Pew, Americans were asked to
rank Mr Trump and Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, on a number of
characteristics. The trait for which Americans give Mr Trump the highest mark
is telling. Despite a notably light schedule and a stated disdain for exercise,
the president’s incessant speaking style is almost certainly the reason he
received a good score on one quality in particular: 56% of voters, and 93% of his supporters, describe him as “energetic”.
https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2020/08/08/donald-trumps-language-offers-insight-into-how-he-won-the-presidency
