Because my speech artifact concerns immigration from Latin America, I decided to use Donald Trump’s campaign announcement speech, particularly the section in which he claims “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” This now-famous quote spoken at Trump’s first official campaign even kickstarted years of “build the wall” and “send them back” chants that are still pervasive today.

When Donald Trump first spoke these words, he intended to use them to rachet up support for his 2016 campaign for president. After winning, they took on a whole other meaning as they were transformed into actual policy. Still, in the moment, Trump was simply reading from a speech designed to create an emotional response to his candidacy.

The section of the speech is arguing that Americans need to vote for Trump in order for their country to be protected from immigrants. At the time, he was simply appealing to pathos, trying to instill fear in potential voters who might see him as the only way to combat the immigration crisis, but over time, this argument became more rooted in reality as policies were being made.

I was drawn to this artifact because in my mind, it is what kickstarted the immigration debate in our country. Obviously, people have been arguing about immigration since the formation of the country, but Donald Trump’s candidacy seemed to create a renewed interest in the topic and brought it to the top of everybody’s minds during the election. As the first speech of his campaign, it contains one of his most famous and controversial lines about immigration, and demonstrates his preliminary thinking about ideas like “America First.” I’d like to further explore his claims about Mexicans bringing crime, drugs, and rape to America. To what extent (if any) are these claims substantiated by actual statistics? Has any of this decreased since Trump took office and began implementing stronger immigration policies?

Overall, I think that this speech provides opportunities for comparison with my speech artifact in a number of ways. Most obviously, the medium in which they are presented differs greatly, and the argument they make is opposed to one another. However, they also use different rhetorical strategies. Where the mural for my speech artifact places a heavy emphasis on pathos, Trump employs several rhetorical strategies in his speech to convey his argument. He employs an extrinsic proof by referring to the expertise of the border patrol, while also using intrinsic proofs. For instance, he uses an enthymeme when he claims Mexico is not sending its best people because some are rapists or drug smugglers. Trump also employs a variety of tropes such as litote (“They’re sending us not the right people”) and metaphor (“The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems”).

While I am still considering whether or not to expand the section of the speech studied, I think that starting from this small excerpt will provide a good jumping-off point for my rhetorical analysis essay.