The rhetorical analysis of former President Trump’s jargon is a bit challenging because his speech is unprofessional and he often contracts himself. The ‘Save our Country’ speech from the day of the insurrection of the Capitol is no exception. During his speech, Trump rallies the crowd using pathos to use their emotions to benefit his re-election. Right from the beginning of his speech, Mr. Trump is furious about the election being ‘stolen’ from him, and convinces the crowd that the millions of voters who elected President Biden were fraud. He says, “We won this election, we won by a landslide.” Instead of saying ‘I’ won this election by a landslide, Trump uses the word ‘we’. This creates a sense of community and togetherness in the crowd. It also insights the crowd to feel as if the election was ‘taken from them as well, this creates a commonplace that the loss is not only for Trump but for themselves. Since the people in the crowd support him, they have also lost this election. Nobody wants to lose. Trump continues this language further into his speech saying “We will stop the steal.” This is when Trump puts the responsibility on the crowd to do something about the feelings of loss they are experiencing from the election. He does not say ‘Congress will do the right thing’ or ‘I will do anything in my power to stop this. No. He says we will stop the steal, insinuating the crowd must do something as well. Everyone in the crowd is experiencing the same loss, and because of that commonplace, they should join together and take action. However, the methods of taking action are unclear because of Trump’s poor jargon. At the beginning of his call to action Trump’s language becomes violent, he says, “You’ll never take back our country with weakness.” By using these words, Trump is telling the crowd to do something about the election, and that it cannot be a week. The words ‘take back out country’ suggests the country is no longer there’s, and that they need to fight for it. These are words of violence and war. By using the kairos of the situation to benefit his argument, Trump tells the crowd it is their duty to fight to ‘take back their country. With these words and the implication of pathos in his speech, Trump was implying violent action needed to be taken in order to ‘take back the country.’ However, Trump then completely changes his tone. He says to the crowd, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” Trump explicitly says to ‘peacefully and patriotically’ protest at the capitol. After rallying a crowd to take physical action, this phrase contradicts those words. The crowd did not take this peaceful advice and instead connected with Trump’s words of violence and attacked the Capitol, resulting in a tragic insurrection that left 5 people dead.
You can find the full ‘Save out Country’ speech from the day of the insurrection here: https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/966396848/read-trumps-jan-6-speech-a-key-part-of-impeachment-trial