ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Commun.
Sec. Culture and Communication
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2025.1541513
Impact vs. vision: A critical discourse analysis of Trump and Harris' leadership rhetoric in the 2024 presidential election
Provisionally accepted
Dalia Mohammed Hamed1*
Naif Alqurashi2- 1Faculty of Education, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt
- 2Taif University, Ta'if, Saudi Arabia
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This study explores the contrasting rhetorical and leadership styles of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris during the 2024 American Presidential Election, revealing how their discourse strategies reflect societal, economic, and political dynamics. Using Norman Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis model (1992), the research examines key campaign speeches to understand how each candidate's language constructs identities, engages audiences, and addresses voter concerns. Trump's "Impact Leadership" employs simplicity, urgency, and emotional resonance, blending fear-based appeals with hopeful messaging to connect with conservatives, moderates, and working-class voters. His focus on nationalism, economic protectionism, and crisis-framing positioned him as a decisive leader. Conversely, Harris's "Visionary Progressivism" emphasizes inclusivity, systemic reform, and moral appeals, resonating with progressives but lacking the immediacy to mobilize a wider electorate. The study situates these rhetorical styles within the polarized context of economic instability and social fragmentation, contributing to political discourse research by demonstrating how language constructs power and influences voter behavior.
Keywords: Political discourse, rhetorical analysis, Leadership styles, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, critical discourse analysis, Voter behavior, Election communication
Received: 09 Dec 2024; Accepted: 30 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hamed and Alqurashi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dalia Mohammed Hamed, Faculty of Education, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt
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