Polarization in Discourse: A Socio-Cognitive Discourse Analysis of Trump’s Presidential Bid Announcement Speech for 2024 Elections

Abstract

The current study emphasizes the importance of understanding political discourse as an effective means for shaping social cognition and justifying political authority. It deals with how Trump uses the ideological positioning of “Us versus Them” in the 2022 Presidential Bid Speech to create political polarization and legitimize his 2024 campaign. Using Van Dijk’s Socio-cognitive Approach and the Ideological Square Model (1998, 2000a) for data analysis, the study reveals how Trump promotes positive portrayal of Republicans as patriotic Americans while negatively depicting Democrats, particularly, Biden and his administration. Such polarization is accomplished using macro propositional and super-structural strategies, such as national self-glorification, blames, comparisons, victimization, and hyperbole, which is maintained by microstructural elements such as strategic use of language: pronouns, modal verbs, repetition, and crisis-driven metaphors. The findings reveal that such discursive patterns use cognitive representations of both inclusion and exclusion to shape public perception and reinforce ideological control.