Strategic Persuasion and Public Opinion Shaping: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Donald Trump's Rhetoric on the US-Iran Conflict

Abstract

This paper examines the use of language as a powerful instrument used by U.S. President Donald Trump to influence the masses and justify the military action towards the escalating war between the U.S. and Iran in the year 2025. Based on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and a rhetorical analysis, the study targets the speeches, press conferences, and social media posts delivered by Trump in late 2024, to mid-2025, and captures the discourse in the control frame of Iran as opposed, threatening and irrational, as well as the United States as moral, and defensive. The rhetoric of Trump is largely based on the appeals to emotions, ethos, pathos, and logos as well as a binary opposition (us and them), war imagery, and nationalistic calls to action that lead people to feel united and empowered. The paper identifies the linguistic tactics at play in post-defeat to justify a military escalation, such as targeted airstrikes and cyber-based operations, as well as to neutralise any opposition and identify a popular viewpoint in favour of a prolonged war. In comparison with earlier the moments of tension active rhetoric of the period of war of 2025 shows more demanding and undoubted way of rhetoric as the war is presented as unavoidable and needed. The results support the use of presidential language in the process of consent manufacturing, control of public emotion and media discourse in times of war, especially in a polarized and digital politics environment.

Keywords: Donald Trump, U.S.-Iran conflict, persuasion, rhetoric, public opinion, critical discourse analysis, presidential language