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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 19:5 (2020) ► pp.831–856

Authority (de)legitimation in the border wall Twitter discourse of President Trump

ORCID logo | Center for Meta-Learning, Future University Hakodate
| Sydney School of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney

The construction of a wall along the US/Mexico border was one of the main political platforms upon which the 2016 US presidential election campaign was fought. Ahead of the upcoming 2020 US presidential election, and with the border wall still not yet built or funded, this article uses the authorisation component of Van Leeuwen’s (2007) framework for the discourse of legitimation to show how President Donald J. Trump has sought legitimacy for the construction of the border wall. Data is taken from Trump’s @realDonaldTrump Twitter postings between October 18th, 2018 and February 3rd, 2019, a period inclusive of the longest federal government shutdown in US history. We show how Trump’s Twitter language is frequently accompanied by evidence-less attacks on sources of rival opinion or information, while the president tends to reaffirm himself as the exclusive source of credible and truthful information.

Keywords: authority, border wall, Donald J. Trump, legitimation, Twitter
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Authority legitimation as political imperative
  • 3.Trump and Twitter
  • 4.The current study
  • 5.Analysis and discussion
    • 5.1Personal and impersonal authority as (de)legitimation strategy
    • 5.2Expert and role model commendation as (de)legitimation strategy
    • 5.3Conformity custom as (de)legitimation strategy
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 4 May 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.19105.riv
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