Politeness in Political Speech: Exploring Donald Trump's 2017 and 2025 Inaugural Addresses

Abstract

Through the guidance of Fairclough’s model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this descriptive qualitative research analyzes Trump’s politeness strategies in realizing his speech acts. The analysis of Trump’s inaugural speeches revealed that he used a combination of positive politeness and bald-on-record strategies. Moreover, Trump dominantly utilized inclusive lexical markers such as the pronouns “we” and “our” to initiate both strategies. These markers create a unifying effect between the government and its people. Consequently, they realize most of Trump’s assertive and commissive acts. Trump’s assertive statements are used to portray himself as a compassionate leader who prioritizes the interests of his people. This goal is achieved by promoting solidarity through positive politeness. Through these results, Trump’s rhetorical style is concluded to be anti-government and pro-people, highlighting the idea that he brings change to all Americans. It is recommended that future studies focus on the audience’s reaction to Trump’s political discourse to confirm whether his communicative goals are achieved.