Looting leads to shooting: A pragma-dialectical analysis of President Trump’s argumentative discourse on Floyd’s death

Abstract

This study aims at problematizing President Trump’s argumentation in response to the protesters’ demands for justice, racial equality and police reforms over the killing of George Floyd. In his first reaction, Trump used mild rhetoric that frustrated and galvanized the angry mobs. In response to escalating protests, Trump escalated his own rhetoric. Calling into question the character and credibility of the protesters, Trump labelled the protesters “thugs†and “terroristsâ€, alluded to the deployment of the Military, and tweeted “when the looting starts, the shooting startsâ€. Pragma-dialectical analysis of Trumps’ response reveals that rational argumentation yields to derailed strategic maneuvering involving name-giving, ad baculum and ad hominem fallacies. Trump makes a dialectical shift from persuasive logic to fear arousing and threat making tactics in order to coercively hold up demonstrations and enforce compliance, and later shifts from persuasion to eristic discourse. He politicizes his response by accusing the media of fomenting hatred and anarchy, and by blaming the mayhem on his democratic rival, who is ridiculed and personally abused. These are irrelevant argumentative moves in the socio-political context as well as in the context of the persuasion discourse.