Back in 2015 before many voters were decided and before the current political uproar, Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump and his political campaign team decided to create the rhetoric for his specific target audience that he is a successful businessman. Trump and his campaign have fought so hard to paint this image by discussing the success of his billion dollar companies such as the Trump Tower, Trump University and many more of his business ventures. With this narrative they purposely leave out many of his business failures and the more than four times that he has had to file bankruptcy. However, this is done to keep the enthemyme that if Donald Trump can be a successful businessman than he is fit to be a great president for the American people.
One of the first instances where he used this rhetoric was in his first campaign stop in Iowa in 2015. During this stop Trump gave his first campaign speech and announced his intent to run for presidency. It was during this stop that he also stated that “He is not a politician; he is a businessman that knows how to create jobs”. This has been the basis of his entire campaign thus far because he has also created the rhetoric that politicians are killing this country in order to sway voters from voting for the typical politician. During this campaign speech he boasted his business record and promised the American people that he will create jobs and they can guarantee that.
Ultimately, it will be up to Trump’s supporters and the undecided voters to interpret his rhetoric of being a great businessman and president for our country.
The “Trump Businessman” rhetoric has definitely prevailed in the campaign thus far. It is brought to light in almost every debate and that will most likely never stop. What I find interesting is the undercut of his business failures. Recently, we have seen Clinton get pummled by the Trump campaign saying her last 30 years in politics were a complete failure, by calling out specific instances in which she failed to pull through. However, the rhetoric behind Trump’s failures are that failure is a part of business and he is a even better businessman because of it. It will be interesting to see if this still plays out in these last few weeks of the election.