This paper focuses on Trump’s aggressive language on immigration. By analyzing a data set made of public speeches, interviews, and statements from Trump’s official website,, the paper will look at how certain lexico-grammatical and intertextual choices in Trump’s representation of immigration display all the typical features of a populist agenda. Trump’s texts will be analyzed according to Wodak’s Discourse-Historical approach: Trump’s own “politics of fear” and language on immigration are evidence of the strong currency of values associated with right wing, ethno-nationalist populism, once the core ideological tenets only of certain fringe movements such as the Tea Party, but now firmly established in mainstream politics.
”A great and beautiful wall”. Racism and populism in Donald Trump’s discourse on immigration
Demata, Massimiliano
2017-01-01
Abstract
This paper focuses on Trump’s aggressive language on immigration. By analyzing a data set made of public speeches, interviews, and statements from Trump’s official website,, the paper will look at how certain lexico-grammatical and intertextual choices in Trump’s representation of immigration display all the typical features of a populist agenda. Trump’s texts will be analyzed according to Wodak’s Discourse-Historical approach: Trump’s own “politics of fear” and language on immigration are evidence of the strong currency of values associated with right wing, ethno-nationalist populism, once the core ideological tenets only of certain fringe movements such as the Tea Party, but now firmly established in mainstream politics.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
