Crisis, Rhetoric and Right-Wing Populist Incumbency: An Analysis of Donald Trump's Tweets and Press Briefings

Abstract

How do right-wing-populist incumbents navigate rhetorical strategic choices when they seek to manage external crises? Relevant literature has paid increasing attention to the role of ‘crisis’ in boosting the electoral success of right-wing populist candidates. We know a lot less about the rhetorical strategies used by right-wing populist incumbents seeking re-election. We draw on literatures on populism, crisis management and political rhetoric to conceptualize the rhetorical strategic choices of right-wing populist incumbents in times of crisis. We propose a framework for the choice of rhetorical strategy available to right-wing populist incumbents and illustrate it with a qualitative content analysis of Trump's tweets and White House press briefings during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We find limited rhetorical adaptation to crisis and high degrees of continuity with previous rhetoric grounded in right-wing populism. This challenges prevalent assumptions regarding the likelihood of incumbent rhetorical flexibility in the face of crisis.

Tweeting through a Public Health Crisis: Communication Strategies of Right-Wing Populist Leaders during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…We argue that these leaders sought to strike a balance between remaining responsive to their electoral base with their right-wing populist rhetoric and addressing the public health crisis. Our analysis matches existing research that suggests that the ability of populist leaders to engage in rhetorical adaptation is constrained by their electoral platforms and voter expectations of consistency (Lacatus and Meibauer 2021).…”

“…Due to the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, the populist leaders may be constrained in their efforts to set terms of the public debate in this crisis. This populist strategy proved challenging because populist leaders could not easily respond with their existing ideological narratives and accuse domestic actors since the exogenous nature of the coronavirus resembled a natural disaster (Lacatus and Meibauer 2021: 4). Furthermore, the need to rely on scientific advice to fight the coronavirus has placed right-wing populist leaders, who are prone to espouse anti-scientific and anti-intellectual views, in a politically difficult position of working together with the medical community.…”

“…Focusing on these cases allows us to shed better light on the stark similarities and subtle differences among right-wing populist leaders. There is already a substantial body of research on the rhetorical strategies of right-wing leaders (Berti and Loner 2021; Ernst et al 2017; Lacatus and Meibauer 2021; Şahin et al 2021), though many of these works lack a comparative framework and rarely focus on communication policy during a public health crisis.…”

‘Saying it like it is’: Right-wing populism, international politics, and the performance of authenticity

“…More general strategies involve consistency with a political habitus, for example, taking positions against what is perceived to be the own self-interest or challenging the ‘status quo’ (Pillow et al, 2018). Voters establish consistency in terms of previously held political positions or ‘convictions’, which they associate with honesty and openness and prize at least equally as highly as other perceived candidate characteristics, for example, competence or preference alignment (Lacatus and Meibauer, 2021; Pillow et al, 2018; Sorek et al, 2018). If successful, authenticity bridges, in voter perception, the ‘expectations gap’ between what politicians promise and what they can deliver (Flinders and Kelso, 2011: 252–254).…”

“…This is surprising given that international political issues, for example, migration or institutional cooperation, are closely connected to populist discourses and often constitutive of their electoral success (Verbeek and Zaslove, 2017). The combination of global political, economic, and cultural crisis narratives has frequently offered populists opportunities for electoral expansion (Caiani and Graziano, 2019; Lacatus and Meibauer, 2021). Once populists gain office, their political anti-globalist, illiberal, transactional, or isolationist tendencies - shape foreign policy (Destradi and Plagemann, 2019; Jenne, 2021).…”