Untrustworthy Trumps America

As we all should know, Donald Trump is our next president of the United States. Untrustworthy and change has indeed won over the hearts of the American people and the oval office. Exit polling has shown how Trump made history Wednesday morning by pulling off one of the most improbable election victories. His win caught us all by surprise, we thought so many people were going against him after his comments and scandals, but in the end, did they really?

Exit polling showed that 49 percent of white college graduates voted for Trump and 45 percent of them said they voted for Clinton. Though we didn’t think that white college graduates would support Trump, according to many class discussions, this was not the case. However, him not winning much of the minority parties was one correct aspect that was called by many people prior to Election Day. Many people were not particularly enthusiastic about any candidate, but they still decided that Trump was the lesser of the two evils and most of them still voted for Trump.

With the many October surprises, and Trump’s consistent rhetoric about crooked Hillary, he set up a nearly perfect rhetorical situation for the country to partake in. Through his speeches, his tone in campaign commercials, and day-to-day activity, he made America feel as though it was not safe and his enthymematic slogan, “Make America Great Again,” did nothing but helped feed into this narrative. Though Trump seemed as though he didn’t have all his marbles throughout the campaign, his lack of “mouthing off” and controlling himself made voters see the man he could really be, and therefore he won their vote.

Trump had a big lead among people who said they dislike both candidates.

Donald Trump may not have been everyone’s favored candidate, but he is the one who pulled out the win. As predicted in class, America wants to see change, and change is definitely what’s in store. At the end of the day, Americans favored Trump’s untrustworthiness over Hillary’s instability.

Trump picks up state after state

Tonight is the night. The 2016 Presidential Election is coming to an end. One candidate will become the President of the United States of America and one will smile through the loss and and say congratulations to the winner (we hope). I predict the aftermath not going so smoothly however. If Trump comes out a loser I can picture his, “the government is a joke” and “our system is rigged by people just like crooked Hillary” tweets.

Trump has focused a lot of energy accusing the system of being rigged. I don’t see that changing if he loses tonight. I think that post election, his rhetoric towards the polls and the votes will focus a lot about how they don’t reflect what Americans truly want if he loses. But, if he does win there will absolutely no mention of a rigged system. But how does this argument hurt Trump is he does win? Would the argument of a rigged system bring into question the legitimacy of his victory?

And tonight I sit here getting distracted by the news and watch state by state turn red. Red for republican, red for Donald Trump. The only question I have for myself is how did we get here? How is Donald Trump the likely winner?

Maybe I should be eating my own words as I predicted in the past that due to Trump’s lack of strong rhetorical strategies he wouldn’t gain more voters. Tonight’s poll results are proving me wrong. Trump has won 168 electoral votes at the moment and key states such as Ohio, South Carolina and Florida. Maybe his use of women surrogate speakers did reach women. And maybe his aim to present himself as a regular, normal American designated with a lot of working class, rural Americans. Or maybe he just did a hell of a good job convincing America that Hilary is a liar and untrustworthy and that his own shortcoming don’t measure up.

Whatever the reason is, the election is shaping out to show the win leaning towards Trump.

Time to Get Voters to the Polls

Early voting opened quite some time ago, and many people took advantage of shorter lines to cast their vote for presidential candidate. Some were eager to cast their vote for their favorite candidate, while others were eager to be one step closer to this election season being over. It has been a long and draining national election season, and the presidential candidates know that America is tired.

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Donald Trump is using media, specifically Facebook posts and campaigns, to rally his supporters and encourage them to get to the polls. Trump’s posts continually ask, “Who is still standing with me in the final days?” and say things like, “Join me” as he urges voters to get to the polls. His communication encourages voters to stay riled up in his support and to connect with other Trump supporters in these final weary days up until Tuesday. Trump is attempting to exhibit unity between fundraising, voting, and conservative values.

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Another thing that Trump’s Facebook posts are constantly communicating are messages about “Crooked Hillary.” His media pushes news articles in addition to photos and memes of Hillary’s scandals. One of the latest articles that Trump promotes reads that Homeland Security may be calling Clinton’s email scandal “treason.” These articles and his posts about her seem to be in hopes that people will be offended by her actions and any fence- sitters will be motivated and get to the polls to vote against her.

Trump has created an interesting communicative pattern of “support me and hate her” throughout this election. His posts display alternating headlines of Trump rising in percentage points and Hillary being accused of something else. Only time will tell if this dialogue is effective in winning him the presidency.

The Final Countdown: Trump’s Last Chance

Nearing the end of the wildest election this country has ever hosted, and the storm really is no where near calm. New York Times‘s article discussing Donald Trump’s last stand suggest that his closing areas of rhetoric are different than the election as a whole. Although Trump puts off a hard and strong exterior, interviews show that Trump is anxious about these last few days, not sleeping much at all. It is important that Trump adjusts his rhetoric to be as pleasing to the media as possible in the last few days of the campaign.

So in the midst of chaos in the closing week of the election, Trump’s campaign committee came up with a few finishing strategies. The first move was to remove Donald Trump’s usually agressive Twitter account. The removal of the twitter account is an effort to take away the impulsive angry tweets that Donal Trump puts off and close down the war against social media and Trump’s campaign.

In the last few days polls have been more tight than they have been all fall, and Trump will continue to use the strategies from his spokesman, Ms. Hicks and his rallies in the last few days in states like Minnesota and Michigan which have not supported republican nominees in over 25 years. Polls following those states are unlikely to change this year but as Trump stated at the end of his rally in Nevada (where he was taken off stage by the secret service in what seemed to be a gun threat), “we will never be stopped.”

The anxiety and uproar of the final week won’t shake Trump’s confidence regardless of what the polls say. What will happen on Tuesday?

Click here to view Trump being taken off stage by secret service at Nevada rally.

“Purple Stew”

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With Election Day being six days away and early voting already starting, in Georgia at least, we must shift our focus strongly to polls in each state. As Dr. Adams talked about in class, we need to closely watch what happens to Florida during the campaign, so that’s what we’ll discuss.

Though Trump is still behind in the count, he has taken the lead in some key battleground states — including Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina — and is edging out Clinton in the traditional swing states of Ohio and Florida.  Trump is making great strides to win in these prominent states this election. Aside from his previous catastrophes, he has not said anything that was disastrous enough to “trump” the further investigation of Hillary’s email scandals. In fact, this investigation of her emails have allowed him to  reclaim a competitive part in this election where his campaign may have thought that it was over after the alleged victims of his sexual misconduct came forward.

The poll shows 86 percent of Republicans are now planning on supporting Trump, up from 82 percent earlier this week. More significantly, Trump has also gone from a 6 point deficit to a 16 point advantage with independent voters. These polls are important because Trumps’ previous statements about the polls being rigged and that he doesn’t believe they’re portraying him in an accurate manner, yet now the gap between him and Clinton is closing. In class, Dr. Panetta continuously asks us things about the voters having made up their minds about the race and who they’re voting for. Until this point, I have thought that everyone made their decision, but this coming back of Trump is really distorting what I thought was going to happen this far into the election season. He has done a great job by letting his story die down and focusing on the campaign while letting Clinton take the scrutiny for her misdoings.

Florida is a main state, and without it, he has no plausible path to the presidency without Florida’s 29 electoral votes. On October 30, Trump was ahead in Florida, which is a win for him, but I still think that this far into the race with numbers being so close, that he’s playing too safe and needs to ensure the people something to solidify a win for himself. On November 8, we will definitely see if the South is really red, blue, or a new “purple stew.”

And the Countdown Begins

The election is just a week away and the polls are showing the candidates somewhat evening out. Could this be because of the October surprise? Or are the polls even an accurate representation of how the election will turn out? How has Donald Trump altered his rhetorical strategy post another Clinton email scandal and how will he react to accusations that Paul Manafort had ties with Russia?

The way I see it, Trump hasn’t been a stranger to controversy during his campaign and his rhetorical strategy hasn’t really changed (at least in terms of his speaking.) It usually includes a brief recognition of the issue, such as regarding the leaked 2005 video as “locker room talk” and then he moves on. This strategy on response to scandals surrounding him has somewhat worked for Trump. Yes, his numbers dropped but they eventually made there way back up over the course of the month.

With the election quickly approaching we also see Trump call Hillary “Crooked Hillary” time and time again. This nickname has been at the front of his campaign since the beginning, and the recent FBI investigation is only making him scream it louder. With hopes of convincing America how untrustworthy Hilary is, this a rhetorical strategy Trump will undoubtedly continue to use until November 8th.

It is also interesting to consider how when Mr. Trump was down in the polls he claimed he system was rigged but now that he is coming back up that argument seems to have disappeared. Trump even Tweeted, “Wow even leading in @ABC/@Washingtonpost Poll 46 to 45. Gone up 12 points in 2 weeks, mostly before the Crooked Hillary blow-up!”

Trump can only hope that the latest scandal revolving around Hillary will turn just enough people away from her and onto him so that he can secure the Presidency. If he doesn’t win I think it is very obvious we will hear the rigged argument just a few more times.

Can Trump Close the Gap?

While sometimes it is hard to tell which polls are accurate, there is a new trend showing that Trump is closing the gap or has taken a lead in some states like Florida. It is difficult to know what truth value to assign to each poll, as some poll the same group of people each time and the sample may be misrepresented.

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Trump appears to keep pushing stories he has seen to work, like narratives and new investigations about e-mails and wiki leaks. While from a communications standpoint this may seem redundant and tiresomely repetitive, from a polling standpoint it seems to work. By reminding voters over and over again of these untrustworthy narratives about Hillary Clinton, he is rhetorically fighting his representation of unstable by keeping his communication patterns consistent. He is also drilling home through communication that he believes Hillary has put herself in too much legal trouble to be able to be seen as fit for president.

It seems that much of the conversation surrounding this election is “I can’t vote for Candidate X because of …” or “I can’t vote for the other because of …” Trump’s rhetoric in his speeches adds to this outline of reasoning. His communication style is not quite “vote for me because I will accomplish x, y, and z,” but instead he is saying not to vote for Clinton because he believes she has put herself above the law and deceived many people.

At a time when many Americans are concerned for protection and trust, this communication may sway people over the next week and a half to lean one way or another when it comes to voting. We have already seen in a difference in polling despite the pushes we have seen working against Trump in media. I believe that the October surprises are through and we will see Trump attempt to reinforce the “untrustworthy” rhetoric of Clinton until the day of the election (and potentially after).

Trump’s Wild Card Character

The election is quickly approaching and in the past week the polls have become more tight than they were throughout the entire month of October. Some polls were showing that Clinton was ahead by 10-12 points and now only leads by 4-6. And all of the talk and drama over the past several months is becoming more and more real as we recognize that either Clinton or Trump will be running our country in a short matter of time.

The New Yorker discussed this past week which candidate has better moral character. Something that you would think would be important as America evaluates a new president and would be reflected in the polls. Most say that Hillary is more suitable in the area of moral character over Trump. And many that have issues with Hillary have more issues with Trump. So how will Trump finish out this last week to convey his character and use rhetoric that may sway those last minute deciding voters?

The statement that has blew up this week has been Trump’s statement on World War III. “You’re going to end up in World War III over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton,” he said. Regardless of the public’s thoughts on Clinton, Trump, the military, or foreign countries… this is going to leave people thinking as no one wants a world war to happen.

Not only does he discuss World War III, but says that if he would have been President when Bush was that Humayan Khan would be alive. This was an interesting statement to take a jab at Bush, because many of Bush’s loyal supporters probably plan to vote for Trump. Trump’s rhetoric in the past week continues to reflect his arrogance and aggressiveness that does not reflect a person of moral character.

With a week left, I would like to think Trump may want to clean up his act at least for the sake of guaranteeing the Republican votes, as he can’t afford to lose anymore. Minimal controversial comments or topics that question his character would be what loyal Republicans are hoping for this week, but as we have seen in the past, Trump’s rhetoric is quite the wild card.

Was Gettysburg Effective?

Gettysburg. A place where respectable people, and presidential hopefuls in this case, come to deliver speeches of unity, of a vision for the country, and of common goals they have in mind to unite the country. The speech being given here could be described as enthymematic because we didn’t explicitly know why he gave the speech here, but many Americans know the history Gettysburg has. Trump’s reasons for giving his speech there cold be different from the speculated reasons the media is portraying. As we discussed in class, Donald Trump unsurprisingly gave a speech at Gettysburg about his plan for the first 100 days of his presidency. However, he also threatened that he would sue the women who accused him of sexual assault, which probably was not the best move since our class discussion that he needs moderate female voters to win the election.

Trump’s polling prior to the speech has been pretty consistent among the white male and female population with a typical 55% male and a 46% female support base. Either way, both of these numbers are greater than the Democratic nominee, Clinton. Though his support from the white population is steady, this will not alone help him win the presidency because Clinton is still overall in the lead, primarily due to his comments about women. “Clinton leads 55-35 percent among women, and has doubled her margin to 32 points among college-educated white women – a group strongly critical of Trump’s response to allegations of inappropriate behavior.”

With all the allegations surrounding Trump, it was very smart of him to speak at Gettysburg, but it was more harmful to what should be his target population. In order to possibly win the election, or to simply turn his polling numbers around in terms of college-educated white women, he must watch what he says about women and to women because this is a sensitive subject to most Americans.

 

Does the media exaggerate the polls?

Another week, and people continue to discuss Trump’s style of rhetoric. Fox News brings up an interesting point though, is the media rigging the election by continuing with a never ending discussion of Trump’s interesting rhetoric? The media changes the game of modern elections because of the coverage.

Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t to say that Trump has never said anything out of line, but does the media press to hardly on him? The media is relentless in what they say about Trump and respond to how he speaks. So how much is the media effecting the polls? In this poll from MSNBC 60% of people say they are okay with Trump’s rhetoric. This poll is a simple poll online where anyone can cast a vote. But, interestingly enough this leads me to think that the media may exaggerate and discuss Trump’s rhetoric more than voters care or effected by.

In the past several weeks, the media and Trump’s rhetoric has certainly effected the visible polls. But Trump says that the media is not just against him, but everyone. Politico‘s article on the media and the polls Trump says “When the polls are even, when they leave them alone and do them properly, I’m leading,” Trump claimed. “But you see these polls, where they’re polling Democrats — ‘How’s Trump doing? Oh, he’s down’ — they’re polling Democrats.”

So the question is how reliable is the media? How reliable are the polls? Trump says they are unreliable and against him. Time will tell if this is true.