The ASC Monthly Lecture Series is back with its second installment. The American Studies Center is pleased to announce the new event titled „Crisis, Rhetoric and Right-Wing Populist Incumbency in the Case of Donald Trump”.

This ASC Public Lecture was held by Dr. Corina Lacatus.
Dr. Corina Lacatus is a Lecturer/Assistant Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at the Queen Mary University in London.

Topics that were covered in this meeting include questions such as „How do right-wing-populist incumbents navigate rhetorical strategic choices when they seek to manage external crises?”. Relevant literature has paid increasing attention to the role of ‘crisis’ in boosting the electoral success of right-wing populist candidates. We know a lot less about the rhetorical strategies used by right-wing populist incumbents seeking re-election. We draw on literatures on populism, crisis management and political rhetoric to conceptualize the rhetorical strategic choices of right-wing populist incumbents in times of crisis. In this event, a framework for the choice of rhetorical strategy available to right-wing populist incumbents will be proposed and illustrated with a qualitative content analysis of Trump ’s tweets and White House press briefings during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will find limited rhetorical adaptation to crisis and high degrees of continuity with previous rhetoric grounded in right-wing populism. This challenges prevalent assumptions regarding the likelihood of incumbent rhetorical flexibility in the face of crisis.

The event took place on March 9th of 2022, at 3 PM UK time/ 5 PM Romania time.

A live broadcast of this meeting is available on our Facebook page and can also be watched below and on our YouTube.

For others events done by our center, click here.