An Argumentation Analysis of Donald Trump‟s Tweets About US – Mexico Frontiers

Abstract

The prominent role of social media, in general, and Twitter in particular, has an impact on people's worldview. Twitter has become a privileged means of communication for many politicians, Donald Trump is one of them. Trump's most prominent tweets are primarily aimed at outlining his plan to build a southern border wall. Combining fairclough's textual analysis framework with fairclough's and fairclough's approach to political discourse analysis (PDA), this study critically examines a collection of thirty-three (33) tweets posted on Twitter by the said president dated August 4, 2014 to August 19, 2019 on his official Twitter account (@realDonaldTrump) and tweeted about the border wall issue. It develops an analysis of argumentation linked to textual analysis at three levels: internal level, discourse level and external level to unmask the hidden use of discursive practices in the game of power and ideology found in Trump's tweets. The complete analysis of the tweets revealed argumentative positions at all levels on the issue of the border wall. The overall results showed that Trump's persecution ideology and racial statements to Mexican wards are demonstrated. The authors recommend further investigation into how the next elected President of the United States will deal with the same issue.