When autocratic behaviours and “democratic” language characteristics converge: an exploration of Trump’s 100-day Michigan speech
Abstract
This paper examines a 90-min rally speech delivered by Trump in Michigan in 2025 to commemorate the first 100 days of his second presidency. Drawing on Lewin et al.’s leadership styles typology alongside Archer’s concept of Reality Paradigms, it adopts a discourse-analytic approach to investigate features commonly associated with two leadership styles in particular: democratic and authoritarian. Analysis of Trump’s use of questions, repetition, evaluative language, and humour reveals a communication style that was frequently personable, informal, and highly interactive; qualities typically associated with democratic leadership. Trump also constructed audience members in ways that echoed themes from earlier rallies, portraying them as ‘proud, hardworking American patriots’ who stood on the shoulders of those ‘who built this country’ and who, by voting for him on 5 November 2024, had effectively ‘saved’ their nation. Previous research has shown that supporters often perceive Trump’s conversational and accessible style as authentic, engaging, and relatable. This paper demonstrates the extent to which this democratic and personable communication style coexisted with populist, exclusionary, and, at times, authoritarian themes in this speech. The author therefore challenges binary classifications of leadership as either democratic or authoritarian, arguing instead that they are best understood as overlapping and strategically combined tendencies in rally discourse such as this. Future research should explore whether similar patterns emerge across Trump’s media interviews and social media communication. Such work might also examine how audience interpretations are shaped by, and potentially contribute to the reproduction of, specific reality paradigms, including those centred on Trump’s narratives of restoring America’s ‘forgotten’ and ‘aggrieved’ citizens to their rightful place within the nation.