Weaponizing The American Dream: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Donald Trump’s 2024-2025 Speeches

Abdurrahman Malik Fajar, Dr. Aprillia Firmonasari, S.S., M.Hum., DEA

2026 | Tesis | S2 Linguistik

American Dream merupakan salah satu ideologi fundamental dalam masyarakat Amerika Serikat yang terus mengalami perubahan makna sesuai dengan konteks sosial dan politik. Dalam wacana politik kontemporer, Donald Trump merekonstruksi konsep tersebut untuk melegitimasi visi politik, membangun identitas nasional, dan memperoleh dukungan publik. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis bagaimana American Dream direkonstruksi dalam pidato Donald Trump melalui strategi kebahasaan pada tingkat mikrostruktur.

Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif deskriptif dengan metode Analisis Wacana Kritis (AWK) Teun A. van Dijk, khususnya pada dimensi mikrostruktur yang meliputi analisis semantik, sintaksis, dan retoris. Data penelitian berupa tiga pidato Donald Trump, yaitu Minnesota Campaign Speech (17 Agustus 2024), Inaugural Address (20 Januari 2025), dan 100 Days at Office Speech (29 April 2025). Data dianalisis melalui teknik dokumentasi dengan mengidentifikasi unsur leksikalisasi, presuposisi, foregrounding, pronomina, modalitas, tipe kalimat, metafora, repetisi, paralelisme, dan pertanyaan retoris.

Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Trump merekonstruksi American Dream sebagai proyek kolektif yang berorientasi pada pemulihan kejayaan nasional, pertumbuhan ekonomi, kedaulatan negara, serta pelestarian nilai-nilai patriotisme dan tradisi Amerika. Dalam pidato kampanye, American Dream dikonstruksi sebagai sesuatu yang terancam dan memerlukan perlindungan. Dalam pidato pelantikan, American Dream direpresentasikan sebagai visi pemulihan dan pembaruan nasional, sedangkan dalam pidato 100 Days at Office, American Dream ditampilkan sebagai capaian nyata yang diwujudkan melalui keberhasilan pemerintahan. Secara keseluruhan, strategi mikrostruktur berperan dalam membentuk representasi ideologis yang melegitimasi kepemimpinan Trump serta membangun model mental audiens tentang identitas dan masa depan Amerika Serikat.

 

Kata kunci: American Dream, Donald Trump, Pidato, Analisis Wacana Kritis, van Dijk

 

 

 

The American Dream is one of the fundamental ideologies in the United States, whose meaning has continuously evolved in response to changing social and political contexts. In contemporary political discourse, Donald Trump reconstructs the concept to legitimize his political vision, strengthen national identity, and mobilize public support. This study aims to examine how the American Dream is reconstructed in Donald Trump's political speeches through microstructural linguistic strategies.

This study employs a descriptive qualitative approach using Teun A. van Dijk's Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), with a particular focus on the microstructural dimension, encompassing semantic, syntactic, and rhetorical analyses. The data consist of three speeches delivered by Donald Trump: the Minnesota Campaign Speech (August 17, 2024), the Inaugural Address (January 20, 2025), and the 100 Days at Office Speech (April 29, 2025). The data were collected through documentation and analyzed by identifying microstructural features such as lexicalization, presupposition, foregrounding, pronouns, modality, sentence types, metaphor, repetition, parallelism, and rhetorical questions.

The findings reveal that Trump reconstructs the American Dream as a collective national project centered on national restoration, economic prosperity, state sovereignty, and the preservation of traditional American values. In the campaign speech, the American Dream is portrayed as under threat and in need of protection. In the Inaugural Address, it is constructed as a vision of national renewal and restoration. In contrast, in the 100 Days at Office Speech, it is portrayed as a tangible achievement accomplished through governmental performance. Overall, these microstructural strategies construct ideological representations that legitimize Trump's leadership while shaping the audience's mental models of American identity and the nation's future.

 

Keywords: American Dream, Donald Trump's speeches, Critical Discourse Analysis, microstructure, Teun A. van Dijk

Kata Kunci : American Dream, Donald Trump's speeches, Critical Discourse Analysis, microstructure, Teun A. van Dijk