Manipulative tactics and linguistic means in political propaganda media discourse of Donald Trump

The article examines the influence of manipulative tactics and linguistic means on mass conscious in political propaganda media discourse of the US president, Donald Trump. Current geopolitical situation in the world is causing changes not only in the society and entire states, but also in political communication as well. That’s why communication mechanisms of political propaganda media discourse are of particular interest to researchers, since they are manipulative in nature and aim to change the recipient’s behaviour and his perception of reality. Analysing the American leader’s speech can help us understand his premeditated tactics in combination with particular linguistic means that allow him to achieve his goals. Donald Trump mostly uses the tactics of self-presentation, insult, inducement, reprogramming and “shooting the messenger”. His phrases are full of lexical repetitions, language units with negative connotations, as well as different stylistic techniques such as syntactic parallelism and rhetorical questions. Aggressive speech strengthens the influencing potential of his statements and propaganda rhetoric of the speaker himself. Thus, the study of the influence of manipulative tactics on mass audience allows to find them in the moment of communication and better understand the principles of their functioning. Moreover, it can help to determine the decree of their influence on the addressee. This material can be useful in linguistics, politics, diplomacy, intercultural communication and other fields where the ability to form an effective interaction between the addresser and the addressee is quite important.

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