CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR ‘POLITICS IS A CARD GAME’ IN DONALD TRUMP’S PUBLIC SPEECHES

20 February 2019 Last Updated: 20 February 2019

Oleksii Dovbnia

(Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine)

There is a common belief that metaphors are only used by writers and poets, but they are actually ingrained in our everyday life. As stated by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in their highly influential work Metaphors We Live By (1980), „our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature’’ [4]. When it comes to political discourse, metaphors help support political positioning or push a certain ideology, establishing the speaker as a desirable candidate [3].

The main objective of this case study is to investigate the mapping between the source domain of CARD GAME and the target domain of POLITICS. The object of the research is the use cases of metaphorical expression that pertain to the domain CARD GAME in Donald Trump’s political speeches. The subject is lexico-semantic peculiarities of card metaphors verbalization in Donald Trump’s discourse. The corpus of experimental material comprises eight public speeches and interviews of Trump’s for the period from 2015 to 2019.

Politicians are generally perceived as gamblers in ongoing political activities [1]. President Trump is no stranger to card metaphors given that his very last name is actually a card term, which is ingrained in the English language. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word trump is defined as ‘a card of a suit any of whose cards will win over a card that is not of this suit’ [6]. Hence, there are also multiple expressions that contain the word, such as trump card (an overriding factor that helps get leverage in the competition) or come/turn up trumps (to do or provide what is necessary in order to succeed).

Just like in an ordinary game of cards, the metaphor ‘POLITICS IS A CARD GAME’ signifies a fierce competition between politicians, and playing the right card is crucial in order to win one. Given that Trump opposes the so-called ‘identity politics’, it comes as no surprise that President’s political discourse is saturated with card-related metaphors aimed at exposing his rival’s attempts to pander to specific social groups.

(1) "The only thing she's got going is the woman's card, and the beautiful thing is, women don't like her" [8].

In Example 1, Trump uses a card metaphor to allude to the fact that Hillary Clinton’s campaign is solely based on her gender because of her historic achievement – she became the very first woman to be the nominee of the two major parties. However, Trump claimed [7] that Clinton wouldn’t be able to scrap 5 percent of the vote without resorting to identity politics and her glass-ceiling-breaker status.

(2) ‘We have all the cards, but we don't know how to use them. We don't even know that we have the cards, because our leaders don't understand the game’ [9].

(3) Because people are giving away chips, they're giving away all these chips [10].

In Example 2, during the announcement of his presidential campaign, Trump metaphorically states that the US is still the position of power (it has the best cards in the game). However, the political strategy of the previous administration didn’t allow them to use the US potential to a full extent given that the leaders don’t realize how the game works. The particular use case of the ‘POLITICS IS A CARD GAME’ signifies the incompetence of the previous administration. In Example 3, in a similar fashion, Trump is using the gambling term chip in order to describe the incompetence of the previous administration in dealing with the Palestinian conflict.

(4) So we want regulation, but it's got to be cut to a minimum and do the trick. And I think that Italy will follow suit [11].

The word suit, despite being commonly used in the English language, is an inherent card term. Play a card of the same suit, to follow the example or actions of someone else.

Trump hopes that Italy will follow the hands-off regulatory approach, adopted by the US. Trump generally takes the anti-regulatory stance since too many regulations stifle the business growth.

(5) And it was all stacked against Brian and I was the one that went for Brian and Brian won [12].

The expression to be stacked against smb also originated in gambling, and it generally has a negative connotation, meaning that the cards have been dishonestly prearranged in such a way that the opponent has no chance to win. In this particular remark, Trump refers to Georgia’s gubernatorial race that was won by Republican Brian Kempt. Stacey Abrams, according to Trump, was predisposed to win since she had media establishment and celebrates behind her back (hence, the cards had been stacked in her favor).

(7) Over the past few weeks, every American has now seen the profound stakes in the upcoming election [13].

(8) And I have a feeling that they'd up the ante very much. I think they would, and if they wouldn't I would really have to say yes [14].

The expression “high stakes” also originated in the gambling world. The lexeme stake occurs more often in business discourse than in political discourse [2]. However, given that Trump is a businessman who decided to make a foray into politics, business expressions are also prevalent in this speech. In Example 7, Trump alludes to the fact that the 2016 election was of paramount importance for the American people, so they had to choose the right leader.

When it comes to increasing what is currently at stake, Trump uses the expression “up the ante” (a native poker term that means raising the stakes of a hand in poker). In the New York Times interview, Trump argued that he would withdraw the US military forces from the US if they didn’t increase their contributions.

This study has confirmed that card game metaphors are pervasive in Donald Trump’s political discourse. The use cases of the ‘POLITICS IS A CARD GAME’ metaphor that were described in this article prove that Trump sees politics as a competitive game with its incurring risks, and only the most skilled players are able to score a victory. In his speeches, Trump urges the Americans to use their chances while Trump takes well-thought risks to achieve goals. In Trump’s discourse, card game metaphors are used in a wide array of contexts (whether he takes a jab at this opponent’s campaign, which is driven by identity politics, advocates for a new economic approach, or supports his candidate during a highly competitive reelection).

This study could serve as a stepping stone to future research on the discursive potential of card gaming metaphors in political speeches. In the future, one could examine how card metaphors are used by representatives of different political ideologies.

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