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1 results

  • 17 - Making Our Nation Fear the Powerless

  • from Part IV - Language, White Nationalism, and International Responses to Trump
  • Edited by Janet McIntosh, Brandeis University, Massachusetts, Norma Mendoza-Denton, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book:
    Language in the Trump Era
    Published online:
    18 September 2020
    Print publication:
    03 September 2020, pp 237-249

  • Summary

    This chapter explores Trump’s language around immigration to determine how he manages to terrorize immigrants while arguing that immigrants should be the source of America’s terror. Drawing on conceptual metaphor theory and over 300 speeches and 6,000 tweets, the authors find that Trump’s primary metaphor represents America as a fortress that is under attack, its cities and towns overrun by polluting invaders. Trump characterizes Mexico as the enemy that sent unauthorized immigrants to wreak havoc, and represents himself as the only hero who can save the nation. Along the way, the chapter explores Trump’s misleading extension of MS-13, the notorious gang, to all Latino gangs and even all young Latinos, and Trump’s extension of the phrase “criminal alien” (immigrants who commit felonious crimes) to all unauthorized immigrants. The authors draw parallels to related conceptual metaphors to be found in the history of Western ethnic nationalism, including Nazi Germany.