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Thou Art in a Deal: The Evolution of Religious Language in the Public Communications of Donald Trump

Ceri Hughes

International Journal of Communication, Volume: 20, Pages: 4825 - 4846

Swansea University Author: Ceri Hughes

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Abstract

When Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign, his candidacy was far from embraced by the Religious Right. Yet, on election night, many of that same constituency turned out in overwhelming support: Trump gained a higher percentage of the White Evangelical vote than any prior nominee. Two year...

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Published in: International Journal of Communication
ISSN: 1932-8036
Published: University of Southern California 2020
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60713
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first_indexed 2022-08-03T11:21:50Z
last_indexed 2023-01-13T19:21:02Z
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spelling 2022-08-26T14:56:50.8346713 v2 60713 2022-08-03 Thou Art in a Deal: The Evolution of Religious Language in the Public Communications of Donald Trump ea8460af971fe3e3aceb250c199a0f14 Ceri Hughes Ceri Hughes true false 2022-08-03 AMED When Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign, his candidacy was far from embraced by the Religious Right. Yet, on election night, many of that same constituency turned out in overwhelming support: Trump gained a higher percentage of the White Evangelical vote than any prior nominee. Two years into his presidency, they remained his most loyal supporters. Using content analysis of 175 Trump rally speeches during the 2016 campaign and since becoming president and an archive of 30,000 tweets from Trump, this research finds evidence to solve a part of this puzzle. Trump appears to use his public communications as opportunities to alleviate the likely cognitive dissonance felt by these supporters, using religious language and explicit mentions of (the Christian) God in both tweets and speeches, helping to afford a biblically consonant interpretation of his presidency. He also proximates Christian religious language with concepts of Americanness, while proximating Islam almost exclusively with terrorism, perhaps linguistically delivering on promises of a Christian nation(alism). Journal Article International Journal of Communication 20 4825 4846 University of Southern California 1932-8036 Trump, religion, U.S. presidential communication, speeches, tweets 1 5 2020 2020-05-01 https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/12691 https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/12691 COLLEGE NANME Media COLLEGE CODE AMED Swansea University Not Required 2022-08-26T14:56:50.8346713 2022-08-03T12:19:44.4715077 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR Ceri Hughes 1 60713__24820__a0c5d293a68049b1a0e92a15d8326251.pdf Thou art in a deal - published.pdf 2022-08-03T12:21:19.3402985 Output 351290 application/pdf Version of Record true Copyright © 2020 (Ceri Hughes). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial NoDerivatives (by-nc-nd) License true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
title Thou Art in a Deal: The Evolution of Religious Language in the Public Communications of Donald Trump
spellingShingle Thou Art in a Deal: The Evolution of Religious Language in the Public Communications of Donald Trump
Ceri Hughes
title_short Thou Art in a Deal: The Evolution of Religious Language in the Public Communications of Donald Trump
title_full Thou Art in a Deal: The Evolution of Religious Language in the Public Communications of Donald Trump
title_fullStr Thou Art in a Deal: The Evolution of Religious Language in the Public Communications of Donald Trump
title_full_unstemmed Thou Art in a Deal: The Evolution of Religious Language in the Public Communications of Donald Trump
title_sort Thou Art in a Deal: The Evolution of Religious Language in the Public Communications of Donald Trump
author_id_str_mv ea8460af971fe3e3aceb250c199a0f14
author_id_fullname_str_mv ea8460af971fe3e3aceb250c199a0f14_***_Ceri Hughes
author Ceri Hughes
author2 Ceri Hughes
format Journal article
container_title International Journal of Communication
container_volume 20
container_start_page 4825
publishDate 2020
institution Swansea University
issn 1932-8036
publisher University of Southern California
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR
url https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/12691
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description When Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign, his candidacy was far from embraced by the Religious Right. Yet, on election night, many of that same constituency turned out in overwhelming support: Trump gained a higher percentage of the White Evangelical vote than any prior nominee. Two years into his presidency, they remained his most loyal supporters. Using content analysis of 175 Trump rally speeches during the 2016 campaign and since becoming president and an archive of 30,000 tweets from Trump, this research finds evidence to solve a part of this puzzle. Trump appears to use his public communications as opportunities to alleviate the likely cognitive dissonance felt by these supporters, using religious language and explicit mentions of (the Christian) God in both tweets and speeches, helping to afford a biblically consonant interpretation of his presidency. He also proximates Christian religious language with concepts of Americanness, while proximating Islam almost exclusively with terrorism, perhaps linguistically delivering on promises of a Christian nation(alism).
published_date 2020-05-01T04:19:03Z
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