Book contents
- Language in the Trump Era
- Language in the Trump Era
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Transcription Conventions
- Note on Ethnonyms and Phenotypic Descriptors
- Introduction: The Trump Era as a Linguistic Emergency
- Part I Dividing the American Public
- Part II Performance and Falsehood
- Part III The Interactive Making of the Trumpian World
- Part IV Language, White Nationalism, and International Responses to Trump
- 15 Part IV Introduction: Language and Trump’s White Nationalist Strongman Politics
- 16 “Perfect English” and White Supremacy
- 17 Making Our Nation Fear the Powerless
- 18 We Latin Americans Know a Messianic Autocrat When We See One
- 19 Rejoinders from the Shithole
- 20 Muslim Enemies, Rich Arab Friends
- Index
- References
17 - Making Our Nation Fear the Powerless
from Part IV - Language, White Nationalism, and International Responses to Trump
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 September 2020
Book contents
- Language in the Trump Era
- Language in the Trump Era
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Transcription Conventions
- Note on Ethnonyms and Phenotypic Descriptors
- Introduction: The Trump Era as a Linguistic Emergency
- Part I Dividing the American Public
- Part II Performance and Falsehood
- Part III The Interactive Making of the Trumpian World
- Part IV Language, White Nationalism, and International Responses to Trump
- 15 Part IV Introduction: Language and Trump’s White Nationalist Strongman Politics
- 16 “Perfect English” and White Supremacy
- 17 Making Our Nation Fear the Powerless
- 18 We Latin Americans Know a Messianic Autocrat When We See One
- 19 Rejoinders from the Shithole
- 20 Muslim Enemies, Rich Arab Friends
- Index
- References
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.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Language in the Trump EraScandals and Emergencies, pp. 237 - 249Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020
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