Donald Trump’s Presidential Campaign, Essay Example

Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign has taken over the spotlight in recent weeks. His campaign has attracted the majority of the media’s attention and has crowded out the other presidential candidates. By doing so, he has now had the ability to sell his political agenda to the nation in hopes of continuing his popularity with the voters. Trump has focused on many issues, like any other presidential candidate, but national security and immigration seem to be his main two talking points.

Trump’s campaign has begun to tie national security and immigration together, similarly to past republican politicians. He has stated that the Mexican government has been purposely sending criminals, rapists, and druggies over to America illegally. He used the case of Kathryn Steinle, a woman killed by an illegal immigrant with a criminal history, to help support his case for harsh immigration laws. This strategy is meant to ignite emotions in the public in order to start a more passionate supporter base. Although many of his statements pertaining to the amount of criminals coming to America illegally are exaggerations, it still sparks an emotional desire to protect the border. He also connects illegal immigration to his stance on national security. He blames Washington politicians for allowing America to be bossed around by foreign countries such as China. Although he doesn’t present any factual backed examples, his speeches have swayed many voters to his support. This is a successful attempt by the Trump campaign to take a stance on this issue with anecdotes and emotional speeches rather than based on facts and research.

Trump’s campaign presented his arguments and positons rather well because he has gathered a huge number of supports rather quickly. However, this may not last long because soon other candidates and policy experts will start to pick at Trumps arguments. They will show that he has not factual support or evidence to justify his claims.

Trump’s speeches and interviews regarding immigration and national security failed to really inform me about these issues. I actually had to go research these topics on my own because when I tried to base my understanding on his words, I couldn’t form a substantial positon. This is mainly due to the fact that Trump uses anecdotal evidence for his support rather than facts and viable information. This doesn’t help voters understand the issue but rather get emotional over the issues at hand.

Personally, Trump’s approach did its job with making me think about the safety of my friends and family from potential criminal illegal immigrants. Even though he failed to present factual evidence to support his political position, he successfully touched upon my emotion. Although I may not agree with his claims, I still can’t help but think about those who are at risk of violence spawned by the illegal drug trade and violent criminals who came from Mexico.

If I were to give Trumps political campaign pointers on how to present a more effective strategy, I would suggest them to include more factual information. Using anecdotes and analogies is effective, but only to a certain extent. To gain broader support, Trump must work for the votes from those who respect a factual approach to political issues. These voters will stay away from Trumps approach because it contains too many fallacies and false statements. If Mexico is sending their criminals over to America, how many are there? How many crimes in America have those illegal criminals committed? These simple questions could easily be answered with facts and would add credibility to his positons.

These claims are addressed then by using emotion. Trump uses moral reasoning to justify his views and to gain support. By making immigration and foreign policy a moral issue, he creates a more passionate group of supporters but also a stronger group of opposition.  This is a way of gaining a strong fan base quickly because voters feel the need to follow Trump. By tying morals and emotions into his campaign, Trump is successfully getting voters fired up.

These examples still lack factual evidence to support his claims. There are fallacies present in his opinions. An example of a fallacy used by Trump is when he states that most illegal immigrants are rapists, murderers, and drug traffickers. This is wrong because the majority of illegal immigrants are not criminals and do no commit crimes once in America. He also states that the Mexican government is purposely sending criminals illegally to the United States. There are no facts or evidence to support these claims. Since Trump fails to provide factual support, his political positions contain more false claims. These fallacies however get overlooked by the common voter because they are satisfied with the anecdotal arguments used by Trump.

Trump’s campaign is a unique one because the majority of his funding is coming from his personal wealth. His self-financing has allowed him to pursue the issues he wants and say whatever he wants regarding those issues. To put it bluntly, he doesn’t have to worry about pissing off his campaign financiers because he is his own financer. This situation grants Trump the ability to structure his campaign in any way he sees fit. He can focus on the issues he wants and address the way he sees fit. However this can only go so far and eventually he will have to start appeasing to a broader base in order to gain more votes.