Trump talk: Rethinking elections, rhetoric, and American foreign policy
| Date | 01 February 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0263395720936045 |
| Published date | 01 February 2021 |
| Author | Amy Skonieczny |
| Subject Matter | Special Issue Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0263395720936045
Politics
2021, Vol. 41(1) 127 –134
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0263395720936045
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Trump talk: Rethinking
elections, rhetoric, and
American foreign policy
Amy Skonieczny
San Francisco State University, USA
Abstract
This special issue on elections, rhetoric, and American Foreign policy brings to light how and
why ‘talk’ matters particularly in foreign policy. While not all of the articles examine President
Trump directly, the special issue situates itself in what can be seen as a new era, brought on by
Trump, that is, rewriting the rules of rhetoric and elections, and challenging our assumptions
about how they impact American foreign policy. By way of conclusion, I summarize what I see as
the key contributions of the special issue and offer a critical claim that the authors do not go far
enough in just how dramatically President Trump’s rhetoric is reshaping American domestic and
international politics.
Keywords
American elections, American foreign policy, political rhetoric, populism, Trump
Received: 24th February 2020; Accepted: 27th March 2020
Introduction
The unique style and provocative rhetoric of Trump both as a candidate and as a president
are in many ways upending expectations of policymakers and pundits alike. The chal-
lenge of making sense of how rhetoric impacts foreign policy in an age of Trump is a
daunting one given that Trump is a president who uses unprecedented and often unmedi-
ated rhetoric, appears to be always on the campaign trail and vacillates wildly in the for-
eign policy arena, shifting priorities and issue areas while rotating advisers and policy
staff. Nevertheless, this special issue brings together six scholars who tackle the daunting
task of providing historical, cultural, and discursive context for ‘causal mechanisms that
explain the relationship between rhetoric and foreign policy-making at election time’
(Lacatus and Meibauer, 2021).
Perhaps interesting to note, the authors, and the journal itself, are situated ‘abroad’
from American politics. While the authors are experts in American foreign policy and
therefore well-versed in American politics, I see my contribution as stemming from
Corresponding author:
Amy Skonieczny, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave, HUM 454, San Francisco, CA 94132,
USA.
Email: askonie@sfsu.edu
936045POL0010.1177/0263395720936045PoliticsSkonieczny
research-article2020
Special Issue Article
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