{"id":9052,"date":"2017-04-26T03:17:12","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T03:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=9052"},"modified":"2017-04-27T03:22:36","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T03:22:36","slug":"100-days-of-presidential-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/100-days-of-presidential-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"100 days of presidential threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jennifer Mercieca<\/a>, Texas A&M University <\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

President Donald Trump threatens people a lot. He menaces, he bullies and then he explains<\/a> his words away. \"The<\/p>\n

As a scholar of American political rhetoric, I have paid close attention to Trump\u2019s use of words. In particular, I\u2019ve focused on something called ad baculum \u2013 or threats. Ad baculum is Latin for \u201cappeal to the stick.\u201d Demagogues<\/a> typically use threats to prevent their opponents from thinking critically. Threats are useful because they are difficult to question or argue against.<\/p>\n

As a presidential candidate, Trump frequently used threats in combination with another rhetorical figure of speech \u2013 paralipsis.<\/a> Paralipsis is Greek for \u201cto leave to the side\u201d or, more colloquially, \u201cI\u2019m not saying, I\u2019m just saying.\u201d This combination allowed Trump to threaten and also not threaten at the same time \u2013 a threat with a wink that meant that he maybe didn\u2019t mean it and shouldn\u2019t be held accountable. <\/p>\n

Candidate Trump was certainly menacing, but it was sometimes difficult to judge whether to take his threats either literally or seriously<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump has stopped using the \u201cwink\u201d of paralipsis since he became president. His threats are now more explicit, but just as hard to interpret.<\/a><\/p>\n

Candidate Trump, a threat with a wink<\/h2>\n

For an example of candidate Trump using ad baculum threats with the wink of paralipsis, consider the case of Trump\u2019s comments during a campaign rally in Louisville, Kentucky in March 2016. Numerous protesters interrupted Trump. In response, Trump menaced, \u201cGet \u2018em out of here.\u201d He then looked on as members of the crowd forcibly removed protesters. <\/p>\n

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