There is only one speech this fortnight that we need attend to: Donald Trump’s announcement of a presidential run captivated the world. How effective was it as a piece of persuasion?
Certainly, Mr Trump used many of the conventional tools of the orator. He began by seeking to establish a mutually flattering connection with his audience: “Wow. Whoa. That is some group of people. Thousands . . . It’s great to be in a wonderful city, New York. And it’s an honour to have everybody here. This is beyond anybody’s expectations. There’s been no crowd like this.”
He plundered the figures of classical rhetoric, using erotesis (the so-called rhetorical question) with anaphora (repetition) and with tricolon (grouping things in threes): “When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let’s say, China in a trade deal? . . . When did we beat Japan at anything?. . . When do we beat Mexico at the border?”
He made multiple ethos appeals — stressing the virtues of his own character. He is tough in business: “I beat China all the time. All the time.” He is a success story, stating his total net worth to be $8,737,540,000. He is both nice and not nice: “Somebody said to me the other day, a reporter, a very nice reporter, ‘But, Mr Trump, you’re not a nice person.’ That’s true. But actually I am. I think I am a nice person.”
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