The Rhetorical Tricks of Donald Trump pt. 1, “They Say”
You gotta hand it to Donald, he has evolved quite an arsenal of rhetorical tricks that permit him to say outrageous and vile things, but always with plausible deniability. Let’s look at one of them.
“They say.” This is one of Donald’s go-to phases, his personal “abracadabra,” which he typically uses to preface saying something that, in reality, nobody is saying. Or nobody is saying it with a straight face. Or nobody who is not mentally damaged is saying it. Typically, Donald deploys “they say” to float an absurd accusation that you are not necessarily supposed to believe, but that is intended to give you pause and to make you question the certainty of what you know.
Donald used his abracadabra “they say” in one of the most outlandish ways yet in a recent interview with bizarre far right wing streamer, Adin Ross. When asked about his opinion of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Donald said, “Yeah, uh, he’s turned very liberal, actually. They say he’s the son of Fidel Castro. And, could be. Anything is possible in this world, you know?”
If you are not aware of the rhetorical tactic that Donald is employing, as seems to be the case with many MAGA adherents, you may say to yourself: “Wow. I hadn’t thought of that. I guess it could be possible. They both have dark wavy hair, a strong chin. And maybe this means that Justin Trudeau is a communist, like Fidel…”
It’s easy to say that Donald Trump is stupid, because he is stupid. He doesn’t know much about anything; he is an incompetent manager; his spoken English is characterized by unfinished sentences and tremendous ignorance. However, like the hedgehog in the essay by Isaiah Berlin, he is skilled at one thing: the manipulation of language for the purpose of controlling people. It is his only identifiable skill. It is a ghastly skill, but in Donald, it is very highly developed. His apprenticeship to the candidly amoral lawyer Roy Cohn, his attending the Manhattan church of The Power of Positive Thinking author Reverend Norman Vincent Peele, the influence of his shrewd and canny father, real estate mogul Fred Trump, and much more darkly, the likelihood that one of the few books Donald has read is “My Truth” by Ad*lf H*tler have all contributed to equip Donald with highly effective tools of rhetoric used for purposes of manipulation and control.
“They say” is one such technique. It seems ridiculous, and yet within the context of the whole array of rhetorical control techniques in the guise of dazzling bullshit that Donald offers, it has been effective for him.
I hope to investigate some more of his individual rhetorical techniques in upcoming mini-essays like this.
