The speech transcript presented above is Donald Trump’s full first address to Congress. This document presents arguments about current problems, Trump addresses these problems and provides a solution. Donald Trump is a controversial leader in our nation. This makes his arguments controversial to most of the country. This was fully covered by the media. This speech was spoken by Donald Trump in the Congress building, in front of Congress, about public affairs in the United States of America.
Donald Trump gesticulates to improve visuals and to improve the message he is giving; likewise, through public discourse the ublic can learn more about the speaker. After reading through Trumps Congress speech I was able to identify fallacies in his speech. Fallacies of relevance is bringing in some factor that is not relevant to the truth. I was able to identify a fallacy of tradition. An appeal to tradition which is when good things tend to be preserved. “We are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its forms” (Donald Trump’s Congress Speech).
This is an example of a fallacy of tradition because, as a country, some people do allow and encourage both hate and evil. Another fallacy I was able to identify was fallacy of overstatement. We’ve defended the borders of other nations, while leaving our own borders wide open, for anyone to cross — and for drugs to pour in at a now unprecedented rate” (Donald Trump’s Congress Speech). This is an overstatement fallacy because Trump is exaggerating about the borders. We never leave our borders wide open for anyone to just come across into another country. We have high patrol, security, and other ways of defending our borders.
A third fallacy I was able to identify was fallacy of emotion. Emotional appeals are how emotions tend to impact our actions. It is how you feel about a claim that has no impact on its truth or falsity. For that reason, we will soon begin the construction of a great wall along our southern border. It will be started ahead of schedule and, when finished, it will be very effective weapon against drugs and crime” (Donald Trump’s Congress Speech). The wall is very expensive to build, taking a lot of time to build. People are very emotional about the wall. It relies on very strong emotions that people have about immigrants coming over the wall.
This article meets the criteria of one speaking in public, speaking to the public, and speaking about public affairs. The article is sound and valid. My public discourse article is ound when all of the premises or statements are true and valid. It is also true that for the article to be sound, the conclusion must also be true. An example of a truth is “What we are witnessing today is the Renewal of the American Spirit” (Donald Trump’s Congress Speech). This is truth because there are several individuals who came out and voted for Trump and believe in the slogan Make America Great Again. The voter turnout is one way to know this was a truth.
Renewal of the American Spirit includes making public safety better, increasing border security, taking care of economic opportunities such as education, and healthcare. A lie or a deception are both modes of misrepresentation. A lie is a false statement with the intention to deceive or hoax. A lie I found in Trumps Congress Speech is “We’ve defeated the borders of other nations, while leaving our own borders wide open, for anyone to cross– and for drugs to pour in at a now unprecedented rate” (Donald Trump’s Congress Speech). This is a lie because our border patrol budget hass doubled over the years.
Even the number of patrol agents has increased over the years. We have not defeated other nations borders when drugs are still pouring in from around the world (President Trump’s Address). After ooking for a lie, I was able to identify a piece of bullshit. Bullshit is speaking or acting with a disregard for what is true of false; speaking or acting unconnected with a concern for the truth. An example of bullshit I found was “According to data provided by the Department of Justice, the vast majority of individuals convicted for terrorism- related offenses since 9/11 came here from outside of our country” (Donald Trump’s Congress Speech).
This statement is bullshit because the majority of terrorist attacks since 9/11 have been home grown terrorists in America. These terrorist attacks are not coming from outside of our ountry, they are coming from inside. They are happening right in our own towns. Differences in how information is presented in the speech versus the visual presentation were things such as the effect it had on the media. Postman’s article “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” written back in 1985 talked about how the media is the message. Television is the entertainment medium (Postman).
Postman, felt that the media had overtaken political discourse through the nation. Trumps Congress speech does relate to the material that Postman described in his article. Trump’s speech entertained the media in ways of making a change to our nation. I am making a reference to President Trumps back and forth with the media with the accusations of fake news being presented in his speech. As Postman stated, “To make such a mistake in the matter at hand is to misconstrue entirely how television redefines the meaning of public discourse” (Postman 84).
The way Trump’s Congress speech is presented on television is so different than how it reads on paper. Congress’s speech was professional, in front of a large crowd, Trump’s tone was very low energy and keeping everything serious while making a change. Being televised, I find the visual presentation to be a more valuable piece of ublic discourse because of how the media got the message across. His tone, gestures, and general delivery are what kept the media’s attention. Trump’s message made his goals sound optimistic, and he would stay on one message before moving on to a different message.
Postman’s analysis has to do with the media and how the media deals with the entertainment. Through Trumps Congress speech, there are many images used in his visual presentation of the speech. Messaris theory of images has a couple of different functions for images. One is that photos or video images are seen as reality, rather than a raft; therefore, one function of images is to show the reality of the image. Another way Messaris theory of images is to transfer feelings of one part of an image to another part of the image with different meaning.
An example of an image in the speech was the American flag president Trump stood in front of while presenting his speech. The flag stands for our nation and its people. With the president standing in front of it to speak, it is symbolic. It is symbolic because it is a symbol of American values. It symbolizes the unity of the States forming the to another. Trump was passed the torch to start his new journey s the leader and all responsibilities he has to take on. This speech seeks to present Trump’s policies in the best way possible.
It presents only one side of things. No politician ever criticized themselves with what is done wrong. Although Trump cites many figures and statistics, very few of them are actually backed up with evidence. Postman’s point with television is that it is purely an entertainment medium. Trump used the power of television as entertainment to portray himself as projection of knowledge and composure because of this, people would focus on the visual spectacle on the television screen rather than the nformation in the speech itself.
The speech transcript, talked about above, was Donald Trump’s full first address to congress. The document presented arguments and concerns about current problems in today’s society, along with all of these problems are solutions. Donald Trump is a controversial leader in our nation today. Several things covered in his speech were covered by the media. The speech was spoked by Donald Trump in the Congress building, in front of the congress, discussing matters of public affairs in the United States today. Donald Trump makes strong points through his Congress speech.
