Exploring Rhetorical Power and Political Language

Over the weekend, Donald Trump did a long, bizarre Fox News interview, flatly declaring he had a “right” to interfere in the last presidential election. He also mused that “God” may have chosen Trump to fix our “sick” country,” and seethed about an “enemy within” that’s out to get him. It’s unhinged stuff that gets at a bigger story: Trump’s feeding of his MAGA audience’s various pathologies has been getting darker and uglier. We talked to writer Anne Lutz Fernandez—author of a good new piece at The Unpopulist website about MAGA—who helps us decode how Trump is communicating to the increasingly radicalized elements of the MAGA movement these days.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices