Hate speech as a conflict communication tool: The case of Donald Trump
Vol.19,No.1(2026)
Discourse and Interaction
Hate speech is a crucial tool in Trump’s conflict communication, which helped him win the 2024 presidential election. This study aims to investigate hate speech in Trump’s political discourse, focusing on the role and functions of hate speech as a conflict communication tool. The research demonstrates that hate rhetoric in Trump’s political discourse aimed at positioning himself as the best choice and, simultaneously, forming an extremely negative image of his political opponents. The expression of Trump’s hate speech encompasses negative stereotypical and non-typical nominations within the threat domain which are targeted at three main addressees: the presidential candidate Kamala Harris, then President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.
conflict communication; hate speech; nominations; political discourse; political rhetoric
Vilma Linkevičiūtė
Kaunas University of Technology
Vilma Linkevičiūtė is an associate professor at Kaunas University of Technology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Lithuania. She specializes in political discourse and cognitive linguistics and is currently working on the topics of hate speech, image formation in political discourse, political linguistics, and war and refugee discourse.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6982-2892
Address: Vilma Linkevičiūtė, Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Kaunas University of Technology, Mickevičiaus 37, Kaunas, Lithuania. [e-mail:vilma.linkeviciute@ktu.lt]
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